When the World Changes
by Lady of Lorule
Summary: It had been two months since the unmasking of Spider-Man on national television. Two months since people rushed to their phones to report that Spider-Man was really Peter Parker, a sixteen year old from Queens. Two months since Midtown High School was released on summer break. Two months since Spider-Man or Peter Parker had been seen.
1. Chapter 1

It had been two months since the unmasking of Spider-Man on national television. Two months since people rushed to their phones to report that Spider-Man was really Peter Parker, a sixteen-year-old who goes to Midtown School of Science and Technology. Two months since Midtown was released on summer break. Two months since Spider-Man or Peter Parker had been seen.

Many people theorized what had happened to him. That he had gone into hiding, fled the country, or even died in the battle that led to his big reveal. The truth was nobody knew. His classmates and friends were grilled by the press, but they didn't know either. No one, not Ned, not MJ, had heard from him since that day. When they went to his apartment to confront him, he was gone, the apartment empty, and not even a trace of where he went was left behind.

The first big break came only a week before Midtown started again. A boy by the name of Peter Stark was enrolled. The media went crazy again, but Spider-Man still didn't show up. There was no comment coming forward from Tony Stark himself or Stark Industries. All they could do was wait until the first day of term...

* * *

"Ready for your first day, son?" Steve asked over his shoulder as he flipped pancakes.

"Uh, yeah. I think so anyways," Peter said, nerves gnawing away at him.

Wanda rolled her eyes and said, "Calm down. People will freak about your identity for a few weeks then stop caring. Teenagers have very short attention spans."

"I'm more worried that all my friends will hate me because I haven't talked to them in two months," Peter corrected.

Steve slid a plate piled with pancakes in front of the teen and leaned against the counter. It was Wanda who gripped his hand and said, "If they're you friends, they'll forgive you."

"When'd you get so wise?" Steve asked the girl with a proud smile.

She rolled her eyes. "From spending so much time with Vis."

Peter just dug into his breakfast. His summer had been going great, fantastic even, until a few days ago, when it struck him his friends were going to be _pissed._ He'd ignored all their texts and calls. They would have found out from the news leak that he was returning as Peter Stark. There was no way he wasn't going to be in trouble for that.

"So, kid, have you changed your mind yet?" Tony asked, entering abruptly and dropping onto the chair next to Peter. "Private school, home school, new school, all good options. I would suggest college, personally. You'd love MIT, and they'd love a literal genius, such as you. I could call a few people and have you enrolled by the end of the week. Maybe sooner."

Peter rolled his eyes. They'd had many versions of this discussion in the last few weeks. He knew it made Tony anxious that Peter would be nearly an hour away at an undefended location with no back up, but he respected Peter's wishes and had enrolled him anyways. Not that it stopped Tony and Rhodey from trying to sell him on MIT everyday.

"I chose Midtown, Tony," Peter reminded him. While it was true that multiple professionals believed him to be a genius, Peter liked school. He liked field trips, decathlon, band performances, and hanging out with his friends, Ned and MJ most of all. He needed a bit of normalcy in his world which had suddenly become flooded with heroes, villains, and battles with the world hanging in the balance.

"I'm just saying, there are other options I'd prefer you to explore."

"Let it go, Tony. It's good the kid wants to finish high school. Education is important."

"Is that why you agreed to do all those PSAs?" Peter asked slyly.

"PSAs? What is this?" Tony asked the first Avenger, his eyes as bright as a child's on Christmas.

"They still show those?" the soldier asked in horror. Peter nodded. Steve grimaced, but simply said, "Not the highlight of my career, but I've had worse."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "What could be worse than those?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I was a showgirl for awhile? Great way to inspire confidence in people during a war."

Peter and Wanda were both laughing. Captain America, a renowned super soldier, leader of the Avengers, a showgirl? It was hilarious, to say the least.

"Do me a favor and never tell Bucky about the PSAs. He's still giving me crap from seventy years ago about the showgirl stint," Steve said with an eye roll, though it was fond, as his expression almost always was when he was talking about Bucky.

"Language, Rogers!" Tony barked.

"Dammit, Tony, that was _one time-"_

Tony stood up, delivering Peter's plate to the sink. "Never mind, Cap. Hey, kid, I have a present for you down in the garage. Grab your stuff."

Peter slung his backpack over his shoulder, nerves returning. Time to go and face the world. Curiosity about this present kept the nerves mostly at bay though. Gifts from Tony were common. New gear, new weapons, new tech, and fancy vacations were regularly gifted upon all the Avengers but he couldn't imagine what Tony had waited right before he left for school to give him. Oftentimes, the gifts were just dropped onto the recipient's lap as if they were a second thought.

Steve and Wanda told him to have fun and wished him luck as Peter and Tony got into the elevator that brought them down to the massive car garage. Tony popped out first, walking over to the closest car, which Peter had never seen before.

"Like it? I thought you might want your own ride since you'll be commuting everyday. I already uploaded Karen into her, of course. And don't worry about fuel. Solar charged. Latest technology from Stark Industries. These beauties won't be on the road for at least another two years," Tony babbled in his typical manner. Peter stepped forward, as if in a trance, towards the new car.

It was a sleek sports car, a deep blue color similar to that of his Spider-Man suit. The roof was clearly made of solar panels. Just looking at it you could tell it cost as much as a private jet. Peter gaped at the gorgeous vehicle, _his_ vehicle. Tony tossed him the keys and he caught them on instinct, eyes not lifting from his new ride.

"This is _awesome,"_ Peter whispered in delight. Tony smiled as Peter opened the door to examine the dark leather interior.

"I also put a spare suit in there, just in case of an emergency. No showing off to your friends," Tony instructed lightly. "Oh, and I want you home by four at the latest or else I send the army after you. Understood?"

"Yes," Peter said quickly, nodding vigorously. He met Tony's eyes and smiled happily. "Thank you."

"No problem, kid," the billionaire said gently, then clapped his hands together and stepped back. "You need to get going or you'll be late for school, Underoos."

"Bye," the teen said, getting into his new car eagerly. The engine roared to life, a wonderful sound. A giant smile on his face, Peter shot out of the garage. The gates opened automatically for him and then he was speeding through upstate New York. He quickly found the autopilot button and let Karen steer so he could sit back and enjoy his amazing car. It ran smoother than anything he'd ever been in.

But his nerves quickly returned as he approached the school. Yes, he'd chosen to fall off the radar these last two months, but now he would have to face the consequences of that choice. There would be endless reporters, of course. Pepper had been pushing for a press conference for months, but Tony had kept putting her off, much to Peter's relief. He wasn't sure he could handle all the attention. He'd become Spider-Man to help people, not to become the darling of the media. And then there were his friends...

No. Screw that. He was Peter Stark, he was Spider-Man. He could handle reporters, classmates, attention, aliens, villains, whatever. He could handle high school.

* * *

MJ didn't know why she was here, in the sea of people hoping to catch a glimpse of Peter Parker's glorious return to civilization. She wasn't some starry-eyed fangirl or wannabe suck-up. She wasn't an amateur reporter hoping for a big break like the many camera crews littered across the road and football field. But she was someone who cared about Peter, not Spider-Man, but Peter.

The most recent image anyone had of Peter wasn't a pleasant one. He was lying motionless on the ground after he'd been stabbed and fallen twenty stories like a stone. Captain America had been the first to reach the fallen hero. When it was clear he wasn't breathing, he hadn't hesitated in ripping off Peter's mask, despite the TV helicopter right above with a clear shot of Peter's unmasking. Captain America had performed emergency CPR right there. It had taken two minutes to get him breathing again, two minutes during with MJ had hardly breathed herself as she watched the live feed.

Then Iron Man had arrived, Tony Stark emerging from his suit in the midst of battle to cradle the young hero in his arms. Cap and Stark traded a few words before Cap re-entered the battle. Stark's suit enclosed around him. Iron Man scooped up the tiny looking Spider-Man in his arms before flying away to an unknown location. That was it. All the other Avengers had been seen since, except Spider-Man, who wasn't even an official Avenger to the public's knowledge. Whenever an Avenger was asked about Spider-Man there was either no reply or a simple 'no comment.'

MJ had hidden herself off to the side from the majority of the crowd, pretending to be immersed in a book. She'd only been tempted to move when she saw Ned, also alone, standing hopefully at the front of the crowd. They'd spent a lot of time together this summer, checking if Peter had contacted either one of them. The answer was always no, but it hadn't stopped them from meeting up over and over again. It was comforting to be with each other, the only people who still seemed to care about Peter, not Spider-Man.

A sudden surge of excitement from the crowd had MJ looking up, both nervous and hopeful. She heard it first the growl of a powerful engine, followed soon by a glimpse of a sleek, expensive sports car. Camera crews and reporters with microphones were leaping up because that car could only belong to one person at this school. Especially as the sports car was followed by a fleet of black vans, out of which poured unmarked security personnel. The guards held the reporters and students back as the driver's door opened and a lean guy with wavy brown hair stepped out, a backpack slung over one shoulder. Something in MJ's chest loosened as she saw him, Peter, alive and well.

Very well. Something had changed in him, she saw it instantly. He seemed to stand straighter, taller. His clothes, though casual looking, were...nice. Designer. The cameras and crowds didn't seem to faze him at all. He talked to one of the guards for a minute before heading straight for the front doors. He came to a stop before Ned. MJ watched anxiously as they had an intense, quick conversation. Then she rolled her eyes as they did their stupidly long, secret handshake. They walked into the school together. The students parted before them as if they were kings. In a way, they were. Peter, and by extension, Ned, had become the rulers of the social structure of high school.

MJ didn't move until the warning bell rang. Peter was fine, she reminded herself as an uneasiness settled in her chest. That's all that mattered. Even if it looked like he was way beyond high school now. Even if he might be beyond her now.


	2. Chapter 2

Peter's first class was science with Mr. Harrington, which was a huge relief. Mr. Harrington was the decathlon coach and generally pretty easy-going. If Mr. Harrington didn't make a big deal out of his presence, then his classmates likely wouldn't either. At least, that's what Peter was hoping would happen.

Peter and Ned entered together, quickly claiming seats near the back. If the seats around them filled up faster than usual, nobody remarked on it. If MJ didn't so much as look at Peter as she entered and took a seat in the far back, well, Peter didn't care. He'd talk to her later and explain things. Ned too. He started mentally preparing his reasoning as Mr. Harrington stood and welcomed the class back. Roll call then ensued, as was tradition. It all suddenly seemed very... mundane to Peter.

"Mr. Parker," Mr. Harrington called, not even consulting his list. After all, he'd known Peter since he'd been a freshman.

Peter cleared his throat, masking his nerves behind a calm face. "Actually, it's Stark now."

The class broke out into whispers, but Peter kept his eyes facing forward. He'd been expecting this. The reality of it did grate his nerves more than he'd like to admit, though. He had to concede that he'd been rather sheltered these last few months. Tony had told him not to worry about the press, so he hadn't. But now he was back in the spotlight, for the first time without a mask to hide behind. He was determined to handle it as cool and unruffled as Nat could.

"My bad," Mr. Harrington apologized, with a warm smile that Peter returned. "It's good to see you again, Peter." He then resumed roll as if nothing significant had happened. Peter's love of his teacher grew exponentially because of that.

"Dude!" Ned semi-whispered, leaning over to his best friend. "Since when are you a Stark?!"

"Later," Peter hissed. His classmates looked much too interested in the answer to Ned's question. Peter cast a look back at MJ, to see if she cared, but she was absorbed in a book, as per usual. His guts twisted. He really needed to talk to her.

The phone rang soon after roll was finished. Mr. Harrington stepped outside to take it, and talking instantly broke out among the students in the absence of an authority figure. Flash Thompson stood up and sat on the desk next to Peter, staring down at him. The superhero stiffened, but made no move.

"Finally out of hiding, are you, Parker?" Flash sneered.

"Stark," Peter corrected simply. Ned was looking back and forth between the two anxiously. Flash did seem... more upset than usual.

The boy scoffed. "Like I'd believe that. Everyone knows your parents died before you could walk. Tony Stark isn't your father."

Peter shrugged, channeling Tony's aura of nonchalance, causing Flash to see red. "Believe what you want."

Suddenly a ping sounded in the nearly silent room. Everyone was watching Peter and Flash with wide eyes. With a frown, Peter pulled a sleek phone out of his pocket. There was a quiet exclamation as he flicked it on and a holographic screen popped up. Peter read the text quickly. _Sorry I couldn't be there this morning. Have fun!_ From Aunt May. He smiled, then leaped up as the phone was snatched from his hand.

"Give that back!" Peter demanded. Flash ignored him and scrolled through the holographic display.

"Do you actually have Captain America's number?" Flash taunted. "Ooh, and lookie here, it says you have Black Widow's number-"

"Give. That. Back," Peter repeated slowly.

Flash raised an eyebrow, even as everyone else grew more nervous at Peter's tone. "What, can't take a joke-"

Flash abruptly cut off his sentence as a hand locked around his wrist. He tried to pull away, but he couldn't even budge. Peter's grip wasn't painful in the slightest, but it was like tugging on steel. He was unyielding, motionless. With a hard expression, Peter held out his other hand.

"Last chance."

Flash practically threw the phone back at him. Peter tucked the phone away in his pocket before releasing Flash with a disgusted expression. Flash scrambled away, spitting out, "Freak!"

Peter sat back down, suppressing the urge to sigh. He'd already drawn enough attention to himself by virtue of being here. Was he really letting Flash, of all people, get on his nerves? Flash was just a jealous idiot, Peter reminded himself, and that was before he knew Peter was Spider-Man. He needed to get a handle on himself. He should have expected something like this, though he'd been hoping they'd wait until second period at least, before making a scene.

Mr. Harrington re-entered the room and raised an eyebrow. Almost all of his students weren't in their seats. They were gossiping excitedly with their friends in clumps, many using very extravagant hand gestures. "Did I miss something exciting?" he asked, puzzled.

There was a collective, "No," from all the students. Peter still caught Flash sending him resentful glares periodically, and Ned looking over at him in concern.

As the bell rang to dismiss them to second period, Peter hung back. MJ was always one of the last people out of a classroom, and he needed a way to talk to her. People passed him with quizzical glances, but no one cared enough to ask, nor did they want to risk having him humiliate them as he had done to Flash. Finally, she walked over. They stepped into the hall together, where Ned was waiting.

"It's good to see you again," Peter said, smiling. It really was good to see her.

She surveyed him for a moment, her dark eyes inscrutable. Then, quite bluntly, she asked, "Where the hell have you been?"

"Upstate" he answered truthfully, then cast a look at the nice wristwatch Rhodey had gotten him. He only had a few minutes before his next class started. "Look, I know I have a lot of explaining to do and you guys probably have questions, so let's meet at lunch. In Mr. Cobbwell's lab? He always forgets to lock it."

MJ nodded and left, disappearing in the sea of students. Peter watched her go, brow creased. She clearly wasn't going to be as forgiving as Ned had been. Though he would expect no less from her. Ned grabbed his arm and tugged lightly.

"We have to get to class," Ned said simply.

Peter shook his head and turned to follow his best friend. "Yeah, right. Class."

* * *

When the lunch bell rang, Peter, Ned, and MJ hurried to Cobbwell's chem lab. As promised, Peter easily opened the door to admit them. They filed in, closing the door behind them. MJ immediately sat on a lab table, while Ned took the time to pull up a stool.

"Let's see," Peter mumbled to himself, heading over to his seat from last year. He knelt down beside a lab table and tugged on a drawer. It didn't open. For some reason that Ned couldn't fathom, Peter grinned. And then reached into his coat and pulled out a long black container. With a practiced flick of his wrist, a seven inch blade shoot out of the container, becoming an incredibly deadly looking knife.

"Shit, Peter!" Ned cursed in surprise.

"Sorry," he replied casually, using the knife to pry open the drawer. Once opened, all that was revealed was a blob of a white, shiny substance. Peter stuck his hand right in.

MJ frowned at the stuff suspiciously. "What is that?"

"My synthetic web," Peter explained, standing with a ball of the substance. There wasn't a trace of it left in the drawer. "I used to make it in here. I never got a chance to retrieve this batch…" He trailed off. They knew he hadn't gone to treat it because of his public reveal, but they didn't say anything, and neither did he. With an easy lightness, he said, "I was worried someone would find this and figure out how to manufacture it for themselves. Luckily, that didn't happen."

Ned made a time-out motion. "Wait, slow down. So far you've shown up to school with a new last name, a new sports car, and a frickin' knife. What the hell happened this summer?"

Peter winced. "Right. Well, I'm assuming you saw me get stabbed and fall off a building?"

"It was all over the news," MJ replied, her lips slanted.

"Are you okay? Have you been recovering this whole time?" Ned asked anxiously.

"I have speed healing, remember, bro?" the superhero said with a smile. "No, I was back to normal in two days. The problem was my cover had been blown. The Avengers took me and May in. There were a million legal problems to deal with. I'm underage, I'm a vigilante, I'm not part of the Sokovia Accords, etc. The government was pushing for me to stop being Spider-Man, at least until I'm eighteen. But then Tony adopted me, and him and May gave me their full permission as my guardians to be Spider-Man, so the govs had to give in. I had to sign the Sokovia Accords and a few other things, but I officially became an Avenger. I've been living and training with them in the Avenger's Facility. I had to beg Tony to let me come back to Midtown, and now, here I am."

"Wow," Ned whispered in awe.

MJ gave him a small smile. "I knew you were hiding something."

Peter smiled unreservedly at them. They were taking this...very well. That was good. All his worries seemed insignificant now, washed away by his friend's acceptance. Sure, he'd left out big chunks, such as the major depression he'd gone through and arguments with Tony, Steve, and May about the Accords. But that was his problem, not his friends. They didn't need his burdens. And he desperately needed some normal friends he could just hang out with and laugh about school with. High school suddenly seemed like a sanctuary from the big, bad outside world.

"My best friend is an Avenger and the son of Iron Man," Ned mused, eyes wide in awe. "That is so cool."

MJ looked over at Peter. He swallowed. Okay, maybe he'd been a little hasty in assuming MJ would let him give such a short answer to why he'd disappeared from the face of the earth for two whole months. "Did you lose our contacts or something, because I'm pretty sure the Avenger's Facility has cell reception," she said, crossing her arms.

Peter rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I got your texts. I just... I knew the press was hounding you and I didn't want to make you guys lie for me."

"You could have at least let us know you were okay," she snapped. Peter flinched, almost imperceptibly. "People were saying that you were dead, Peter. Do you know how scary these last few months had been for us, while _you_ partied with the Avengers?" She got up and strode towards the door, her steps blaring like a punching bag being pulverized.

"MJ," Peter called, but she had already stalked out. Peter stared at her disappearing figure regretfully, but didn't stop her.

Ned grimaced in sympathy. "It's been a rough summer," he said, not sure how to make Peter feel better. They both knew her actions were completely justified. So he lamely finished with saying, "She'll come 'round. Let's get going."

"Yeah. Sure," he agreed absently, rolling the ball of synthetic web in his hands.


	3. Chapter 3

"Come on, kid, concentrate!" Clint yelled.

Peter rolled his neck, crouching. He would get this. If he did this, he could go do homework- No. Don't think about homework, Peter thought forcefully. Only Clint, the edge of the building, and the arrow that was about to go racing towards him. Focus, Peter.

"Ready...Set...Go!" Clint shouted. Peter surged forward, clearing the edge of a roof. He only had a split second in which he was falling, Clint on the ground with bow raised. And then an arrow was zooming for his chest.

Peter raised his hand and shot out a web. It latched onto the arrow, so he batted it aside and released the web. The ground was rushing up to meet him. He calculated the distance and rolled as his feet touched the ground. It only jarred him a little. Instead of getting up after his roll, Peter just laid on the grass and tugged off his mask.

Cheering came from Steve, Sam and Bucky, who were watching. Steve because he was mostly in charge of training Peter, as they were similarly enhanced. Sam and Bucky because they seemed to follow Steve wherever he went. Clint slung his bow on his back and went over to help Peter up.

"Nicely done," Hawkeye praised as Peter stood reluctantly. "How'd that feel?"

"Like I was going to get skewered," he replied with a wry smile. Clint laughed. "No, actually, it was good. I'd rather be able to keep swinging if a projectile is coming at me, but we can work on that later."

"Why not now? You're already suited up and that fall didn't hurt you," Steve pointed out, joining them on the lawn.

Peter grinned sheepishly. "Homework. I have an essay to write."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Right. I forgot how much of a kid you are."

"Hey, education's important," Steve reminded the archer.

"Who are you to talk, you went to an art school!" Bucky yelled.

Peter laughed as Cap rolled his eyes. "Did you really?"

"You do realize my entire life wasn't World War II, right?" Cap asked with a raised eyebrow, but he was clearly amused.

"That honestly goes against everything I was taught in school," Peter said, heading off with a wave.

* * *

Okay, essay was done, math homework completed, and all that was left was an incredibly simple science project. He'd be able to do that with spare chemicals laying around the labs. If he could just find his notebook-

"Hey, dinner's ready," Tony said, leaning in his doorway.

Peter yanked open a drawer and rifled through it. He didn't look back as he said, "I need to finish this thing first, I'll be down in a minute."

"You've been doing homework for hours," Tony said with a frown. "And you were training with Cap and Barton for hours before that. Have you eaten today?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Peter replied absently. He slammed the drawer shut with a frown. Where had he put the stupid thing?

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., has Peter eaten today?" Tony called. The teen finally looked at him with a disappointed grimace. He didn't like when Tony had the A.I. tattle on him. Yes, he knew he was being watched at all times, like everyone in the facility, but it still felt like an invasion of privacy. One his father had no hesitation about exploiting.

"Not since he had a banana at eight am this morning," she replied in her slight accent.

Tony looked back at his son, a _don't-mess-around-with-me_ look on his face. "Would you like to change your answer?"

"Okay, I haven't eaten, but I'm almost done with my project," he said defensively, arms crossed.

"Your project can wait an hour while you eat," Tony countered firmly. The billionaire peered at the paper detailing the project. "And after dinner, you can hang out in the lab. Maybe I could help you out, or Bruce if you want." When Peter didn't move, Tony said, "Let's go. The team's waiting."

"Alright," Peter acquiesced reluctantly.

They went to the kitchen area in silence. In true Avenger fashion, an army of takeout boxes were spread across the counter as everyone sat in the adjacent family room, on chairs and on the floor. They were chatting noisily as they ate. Pepper and Sharon were sipping cups of coffee in the kitchen, a bit away from the rambunctious superheroes.

Pepper smiled as she saw them. "There are my boys. I haven't seen you all day, Peter."

The teen smiled. "Sorry, Pep."

"Its fine. Eat up, you've been working so hard," she prompted. Sharon excused herself as Tony wrapped an arm around his wife's waist. Peter piled a plate high with food and went to sit next to Bruce and Natasha on the couch.

"All he's eaten today is a banana," Tony murmured.

Pepper frowned. Though she wasn't his birth mother, she loved Peter like a son. Unfortunately, since she had so much work to do for Stark Industries, she didn't get to spend nearly as much time as Tony did with their adoptive son. And of course, he had his aunt, who was away on vacation with her boyfriend right now. Peter had declined going with her in favor of school and Avengers.

"But I thought you said he metabolizes so fast he would pass out if he didn't eat enough," she hissed back. God, superhuman teenagers were as much work as infants in some ways.

"That I did," Tony said grimly as Pepper choked. "Bruce confirmed it. That's why he's not allowed to leave until he's eaten enough for a small family."

Pepper groaned and leaned her head against her husband's. "I though Steve was taking care of him."

"He bailed on training early today," Tony explained. "Had homework. His work ethic might _actually_ kill him. Really, I'd be proud if he weren't likely underfed right now and on the verge of unconsciousness."

"Oh God," she moaned. "We'll need to keep a better eye on him now that he's in school. He gets too distracted, like you."

"I completely agree," the billionaire said with a nod.

The couple watched their son for a few peaceful minutes. He was in deep discussion with Bruce about a project they were working on in the labs, eyes sparkling with happiness. Pepper noticed a few more people were sneaking discreet looks at Peter. The teen didn't even notice. He'd only been back at school for two weeks now, but there was a definite difference with him gone daily. The Avengers missed their youngest member, whose presence they'd started taking for granted.

"We still need to do a press conference to deal with Peter's reveal," Pepper said. Tony didn't reply, so she nudged him. "Hey. I know he's busy and you want to protect him from the press, but we have to give a public statement. I know Peter's getting questioned at school, he's just too nice to say anything."

"He is, isn't he?" Tony mused, then made a face. "I can't ask him to do that. He hates attention. On a grand scale, at least. _That_ he didn't get from me."

"Oh, I know. Then you and should Steve should issue a joint statement. You would need to announce the adoption, Steve would have to make his membership in the Avengers official. I'm just worried that if Peter isn't there it will look like he's a minor being forced into government work as a child soldier. It might backfire on the Avenger's image." Pepper sighed and ran a hand through Tony's dark hair. "We have to at least ask him."

"Right. I'll do that. In the lab later."

She peered at him suspiciously. "Make sure you do. The rumors will only get worse the longer we wait. Some people are saying we kidnapped a minor."

"I will. Don't worry," he reassured her. They both smiled as Peter's laugh reached them.

* * *

"And…" Tony murmured, carefully aligning the last piece of Peter's project. "There. That should be it."

Peter examined the project and smiled excitedly. "I'm so getting an A."

"I would think you would already have passed science, considering you created an incredibly durable synthetic webbing. I mean, even I haven't done that," Tony praised in his unique way.

"Yeah, well, high school doesn't work like that," the teen responded, sitting down with a satisfied look. It had only taken an hour to make the project with Tony's help. Not that he had needed it, but he liked spending time with Tony. They hadn't been able to spend very much time together since school resumed, and he could tell they both needed the bonding time.

When Tony didn't reply, Peter gave him a quizzical look. "Is something up? You've been kind of quiet. Didn't even suggest I turn my project into a sustainable energy source or something cool."

Tony sighed and Peter was immediately suspicious. "Pepper and I were talking," he began slowly, "and we came to the decision to hold a press conference tomorrow. About you."

"About me?" Peter repeated, frowning.

"We've been avoiding the press for months now, and she thinks it'll hurt our image if we wait any longer. And as my wife is generally always right, I've agreed." Tony leaned over and placed a hand on Peter's knee, looking him in the eyes. "You don't have to be there. Steve and I can handle it. I mean, you'd have to miss school and all."

"You could excuse me from school," the teen dismissed, raking a hand through his hair. "What did Pepper say?"

"What?"

"If I don't have to be there you would have just mentioned it in the morning. So what else did Pepper say about the press conference?"

Tony chuckled. "I keep forgetting how smart you are. Which is ridiculous, because I hated when people underestimated me when I was sixteen at MIT." He hesitated before continuing, "Pepper _thinks_ it would be better if you were there, for our image and whatever. But I will not force you in any way. I can totally handle it without your involvement."

Peter played with the ends of his lab coat sleeves, looking at his lap. He hated attention, and reporters with all their flashing lights and yelling. He'd much rather be with Ned at school, where the biggest concern was that someone would work up the courage to ask for his autograph or a question. But if it would help the Avengers, then how could he say no? They had all done so much for him.

"You know what? Think it over, take the night, whatever you need. Wanna watch a movie? There's that weird sci-fi one you like-"

" _Tony_ ," Peter interrupted, taking a deep breath. "I'll do it."

Tony's brow furrowed. "You're sure?"

"Yeah. Can you try to keep it small though?" Peter requested quietly.

"Don't worry, I'll reign in my wife. I was thinking a question limit and invite only for reporters, anyways. And we'll do it here, in the Facility, so you don't have to worry about that. And since we're all a bunch of overprotective mother hens, I'm sure everyone else will show up to deflect attention from you."

"Thank you."

Tony waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Help me with my new suit, it's being a pain in the ass. Unless you have more homework?"

Peter leaped up. "Nope, I'm done. Let's work on your suit!"


	4. Chapter 4

_The support beam came crashing down. All Peter could do was catch it. It wasn't too heavy, but it was bulky, and he didn't have a lot of space to maneuver in. He remembered his adversary a second too late. The criminal shot forward and plunged his spear into Peter. It tore through his suit and entered his stomach. He screamed in pain as he attempted to toss the beam aside so he could fight. But the criminal kicked him hard, right in his fresh wound. Immobilized by pain, Peter went staggering back, dropping the beam between him and his opponent, right through the glass windows. He was falling, his side burning, his vision going black, his lungs failing as he slammed into the hard asphalt twenty stories below._

"Peter!" Nat said urgently, shaking the boy awake.

He bolted upright in his bed, gasping for air. Oh, god, he couldn't breathe, his lungs-

"Peter, breathe," Natasha commanded, a consoling hand on his back, rubbing circles. "Focus on me, okay? Deep breaths. You're okay. You're in your room. Breathe."

His ragged breathing slowly evened out. He forced his muscles to relax, slumping into Natasha. She just adjusted her position to better support him, running her fingers through his sweaty hair. Slowly, he became aware of the feeling of his tangled sheets and Natasha's warm skin. He could tell he was shaking but couldn't stop.

"There you go, Peter," Natasha murmured. "Just a dream. You're okay."

"Th-thanks," he stammered out, still slightly disoriented and shaking.

"Shh," she reprimanded and he closed his eyes. Her breathing was steady, so he tried to match her pace. That worked pretty well. After a few more minutes he was able to sit up. She cupped his face. "Better?"

He gave a weak smile. "Yeah. Thanks, Nat."

She smiled gently. "No problem. It's been a rough night all around. I walked into the living room and found Wanda sleeping on the couch with Vision next to her. Apparently, she couldn't sleep so she stayed up talking to Vision until she crashed."

Peter nodded, untangling himself from his blankets. Nat helped him out. He stood and stretched, tired, even though he'd only been awake a few minutes. He could tell this was going to be a long day.

"I'm going to shower. Is there any breakfast?" Peter asked.

"I think Sam and Bruce were making something," she replied vaguely. Then she blinked and said, "Oh, I actually came here for a reason. Make sure to put on something nice. The press conference is in two hours."

"...Right. The press conference," Peter repeated slowly. The conference that had already caused him enough stress for his nightmares to return, apparently.

Nat frowned. "If you don't feel up for it, Tony and Steve can handle it. You don't have to do it, Peter."

"No, no! I will, it's just that... ," he trailed off, unable to put it into words. She understood though. She was rather good at reading people, a trait Peter found both helpful and unnerving, depending on the situation.

"Yeah, I get it. Go shower. I'll make sure there's something edible left for you," Nat promised, leaving with a smile. Peter ignored his growing nerves and shut the door to his bathroom. First thing first, he needed to rinse all this sweat off of himself. He was nowhere near presentable looking like this, especially for a national audience.

Once properly washed, he opened up his extensive closet, courtesy of Tony. He hadn't had any occasion to wear a suit yet, but he had five different ones. He picked a simple gray suit, not bothering to put on the jacket yet. If he had to admit it, he looked pretty good in the designer suit, but nerves rose up as the reason he was wearing it hit him. He'd never had to deal with the press in this way before, unmasked and being interviewed.

But Tony would be there, he reminded himself. And Steve, Pepper, probably Nat and some of the others too. They would be there. They could get him out of there if he needed. Which he wouldn't, he decided fiercely. He was Spider-Man. He wouldn't back out of a press conference. He would face it down with his head high, his team by his side. He was an Avenger, which meant he wasn't alone.

Sam, Bruce, Nat and Scott were in the kitchen, silently eating and cooking. Bruce was flipping through a scientific journal, so absorbed that he was the only one who didn't notice Peter's entrance at first. Peter spied Vision watching over Wanda's sleeping form in the other room.

"Morning, Pete," Scott greeted, pulling out a chair for him. He sat down, and began shaking his leg instantly.

"Hey," Peter replied, thanking Sam as the veteran placed a loaded plate in front of him. After a minute of digging into his food, Peter swallowed and asked, "Where's Tony?"

"Tony, Pepper, Steve, and Bucky are setting up for the conference," Sam supplied, then rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I'm all for just flying over New York City and yelling the announcement, but hey, what do I know?"

Peter smiled in appreciation at Sam. He could tell the man was trying to make him laugh and not stress about the conference. But it was hard. Especially without Tony or Steve there. Actually, as Peter thought about it, he realized this was the first breakfast he'd had without either one of his "dads" hovering. They'd been around so much ever since his reveal that he'd started taking their presence for granted. Peter shoved his unsettling thoughts away and tried to focus on eating.

Too late. His stomach was starting to knot and the delicious breakfast was suddenly very unappealing. He tried to casually set down his utensils, as if he were done, but one can't fool the Black Widow. Her sharp eyes caught the motion, and her pale green eyes bored into him.

"Peter? Is something wrong with your meal?" she asked pointedly. Sam grimaced in sympathy. No one wanted to be on the receiving end of that tone.

"No. I was just, uh, going to get some water," Peter fabricated lamely.

She smiled pleasantly as he stood. "Smart answer."

Bruce rolled his eyes at her behavior. "Go easy on the kid, Nat. He's just nervous."

"What on earth are you talking about?" she replied coyly. Peter filled up a glass of water, pondering their relationship. From snippets he'd heard from the Avengers, Bruce and Natasha were involved, or maybe had been involved. They had an easy banter between them, but Peter had never seen them kiss like Tony and Pepper, or go on a date like Steve and Sharon. There wasn't any of the casual contact Clint had with Laura the one time Peter met her.

And yet, there was something quiet between them, but present. He supposed a relationship between superheroes would be different than one between a superhero and civilian, especially considering Bruce's...condition. When Peter had been asking Bruce about the basics of his Hulk transformation, the scientist had confirmed that he couldn't get too excited. Peter had tried to apologize for bringing it up, but Bruce had just shrugged and said, "It is what it is." Now though, as he saw the man watch Natasha walk to the living room, Peter wondered if it didn't bother him more than he let on. He knew it would bother him if he had Bruce's problem.

Peter was sitting on the couch, earbuds in as he streamed some of his favorite rock music. Most of the Avengers were in the kitchen, or coming and going from the living room. This wouldn't have interested him so much if they weren't all in suits or dresses. He had never seen them dress up, not even when General Ross came to have Peter sign the Sokovia Accords.

"Why's everyone all dressed up?" he asked Wanda, who was braiding her hair on the couch across from him.

She raised an eyebrow. "We have to look good for the press conference, right?"

"Wait, are you all going?" Peter asked in surprise, yanking his earbuds out.

"If that's okay with you," Bucky said, wearing a black glove to cover up his metal appendage. He'd come down a few minutes ago, but Tony, Steve and Pepper had yet to make an appearance.

"Uh, yeah, of course. I just didn't think you'd all want to come," the teen explained, fiddling with his cuff links. Tony had given them to him. Peter had been really touched because they were solid gold. Then he'd noticed the subtle spider engraving on them and caught Tony's little smirk.

Sam barked a laugh. "You kidding? We wouldn't just sacrifice you to the press. They are some major a-holes."

Peter couldn't help but smile. Wanda was helping Vision knot his tie, though the android probably didn't need the help. Bruce was zipping up Natasha's dress. Scott was trying to surreptitiously loosen his tie. All for him, so that they could stand by him. The all knew how much he'd been dreading this, how much he'd freaked out when he found out his identity had been revealed. It was touching.

At about a half hour to the interview, Pepper came into the living room, looking as professional as always. She smiled as she saw Peter, dressed up in a suit and sitting quietly next to Bucky. He looked relieved when he saw her, and a bit nervous. She would spare him from this if she could, but they'd already gone too long without a public statement.

"Ready?" she asked him as he stood up, playing with his cuff links.

"As I'll ever be," he murmured. He was looking rather pale.

She slipped an arm around his shoulders. "Come on. We'll try and make it quick." He allowed her to lead him out of the room. The rest of the Avengers followed. They went down to the room where Tony had first offered him the Iron Spider suit. Tony and Steve were already there, both in suits, Tony in his trademark shades. Steve smiled encouragingly at Peter, who managed a weak smile in return. Tony went and stood on Peter's other side, his presence alone calming the boy.

"Whenever you're ready, we'll head in, clear some stuff up, then order lunch," Tony said, his familiar babble blocking out Peter's nerves for a second. "I was thinking pizza. From that place you like. Or maybe good ol' burgers, we haven't done those in a while. Whatever you want."

"Pizza sounds great," the teen offered.

Tony nodded approvingly. "Good pick."

Peter took a deep breath, then said, "Let's do this."

Pepper squeezed his shoulder then went to the doors. Happy, who Peter hadn't even noticed was here, pulled the doors open for her. Immediately, flashing lights and yelling bombarded his senses. After Pepper entered, Happy closed the doors.

"Just a second," Tony assured him, keeping his arm around Peter. The rest of the Avengers assembled around them on a nonexistent cue.

Through the door, Peter could hear Pepper saying in a mic, "And now, may I introduce you to the newest member of the Avengers, Spider-Man!"

The doors were opened. He and Tony walked in together, closely followed by everyone else. Cameras were flashing like crazy, about fifty reporters were standing before a long table cheering and yelling questions. Peter felt like he'd been hit by the Shocker as his enhanced senses tried to compute everything going on in the room. But Tony didn't release him, and carefully guided him to sit at the table. Tony was on his right, Steve was on his left.

"Peter! Peter!" reporters yelled. He was beginning to feel a bit dizzy.

Then, of all things, Tony put a finger to his lips and the room fell silent. "Thank you," the billionaire said, holding Peter's hand under the table. "It's the kids first big gig. Let's go easy on him today, alright?"

The room tittered with laughter and settled down. The cameras were now rolling instead of snapping photos and the reporters were raising their mics to catch every word the Avengers would say. Peter tried to relax. The only one who looked as uncomfortable as him was Wanda, who had the most difficult relationship with the press.

"How about we start?" Pepper suggested. Hands immediately shot up. Pepper smiled. "To cover the basics, Peter is sixteen years old, is enrolled in high school, and is from Queens." That was written down by the majority, but no hands went down. Just as Peter started to fidget, Tony squeezed his hand.

The first reporter stood up. "Yes, Peter, could you please give us your last name?"

"My, uh, last name is Stark," he said into the microphone on the table before him. Most of the reporters in the room seemed personally vindicated with his answer.

"Are you Tony Stark's biological child?" she continued, appearing to be looking at a list.

He shook his head. "No. I'm adopted."

A new reporter asked, "Do you have any parents or guardians besides Mr. Stark?"

"Uh, yes. My aunt," Peter replied, not liking how everybody's eyes seemed to be on him.

"Unfortunately, May Parker couldn't be here today," Tony injected. "Ms. Parker, Pepper and I have joint custody of Peter. There'll be quite a custody battle if Pep and I ever split." More laughter. The camera loved Tony and he wasn't afraid of deflecting attention from his son.

"Mr. Stark, when did you adopt Peter?"

Tony pretended to consider. "On June 5th of this year."

"The week after his public identity reveal," the reporter said skeptically. Tony nodded and made an on with it gesture. "Did you adopt Peter to cover up the fact that an under-age vigilante was interfering with legitimate groups, such as the Avengers?"

"No. The paperwork just took forever to finalize. I've been working on custody for nearly a year. My wife would be happy to give you the records of the adoption process when this is over," Tony said flatly. He clearly didn't like being accused of using Peter. The reporter took no notice, sitting down with a thoughtful look.

"Is Spider-Man a member of the Sokovia Accords?"

Steve took this question. "Yes. I can confirm that, per the amendments made in January of this year, minors are able to join the Avengers with the express consent of the minor and their guardians. Peter, Tony, Pepper, and May all signed the Accords."

This seemed to interest a great many people. Multiple reporters pulled out their phones, no doubt researching the amendment that seems to have gone over everyone's head. Peter took advantage of the momentary reprieve to take a sip of water from the bottle in front of him.

"Is Peter another enhanced individual, or do his abilities come from his equipment?"

Steve looked at Peter, apparently letting him decide how much he wanted them to know. Peter took a deep breath and said, "I'm enhanced, but the webs are synthetic."

"How did you receive your abilities?"

Peter frowned. "I was, um, bit by a spider."

Confused looks followed his statement. Bruce leaned down to his microphone to say, "What Peter means to say is that he was bit by a spider that had been genetically mutated. From my research, I currently believe the bite affected Peter's DNA, altering it in a way similar to how Captain America's was altered."

"Dr. Banner, could you expand on that statement?"

"Yes, of course," Bruce said, not seeming to mind being asked to talk science, even though Peter knew crowds made him nervous. "Peter has a similar super strength, durability, increased metabolism, healing rate, enhanced senses and superhuman speed as Captain America. Peter is much more agile though, and has an ability called superhuman equilibrium. That's what allows him to walk on walls or ceilings."

"That isn't an ability of your suit?" a reporter asked in surprise.

Peter smiled. "No, I really only need the suit to have free movement and my webs."

"Could you demonstrate?" a journalist asked, raising an eyebrow. He could tell she was joking, but he decided to have some fun.

He stood and walked to the wall. He heard people leaping up to get a better view and cameras clicking as he placed his fingertips on the wall and began to climb up the smooth surface. He then stood upside down on the ceiling. Luckily his tux stayed in place. He didn't need his abs plastered on magazine covers.

"Show off," Sam muttered.

"Catch!" Nat said, throwing a pen at him from behind. He caught it without even looking, prompting excited exclamations from the audience. Sam and Scott just shook their heads in exasperation. His unnaturally fast reflexes were something the two men often tried to get by. It wasn't uncommon for them to randomly chuck objects at the teen when he was turned around. They'd yet to succeed in hitting him.

Tony peered up at him. "I think they get the idea."

Smiling a bit sheepishly, Peter dangled by one hand for a second before dropping to the ground near soundlessly. He sat down next to Tony again.

"Peter! Why did you decide to join the Avengers only this summer when you've had this abilities since at least fall of last year?" Another journalist called out.

His brow furrowed as he said, "Well, my uncle always used to say something. 'With great power comes responsibility.' I never took it very seriously. But then I got my powers, and I knew I had to use them to help people who don't have any. I didn't join the Avengers at first because I felt I could do more good for individuals on my own. But things change, and I made a choice to join them. We fight a bigger fight, but its still to keep people safe."

Tony smiled at him proudly. His face was a little flushed from his impromptu speech, but the press seemed to be loving it. More questions came, about his abilities, his involvement with the Avengers and as a vigilante pre-Accords signing, his plans for school, his life prior to his bite. They seemed to want to know everything about him.

Tony seemed to sense that he was running low on energy. "Well, I think that should be enough," Iron Man announced, standing up and clapping his hands. "I look forward to the scathing articles half of you will write."

All of the Avengers stood as the reporters desperately cried out requests of just one more question. Tony guided Peter out, Wanda, Vision, Bucky, and Bruce right behind them. Steve, Scott, Sam, Rhodey, and Nat had stayed behind to answer a few more questions.

"How you feeling?" Bruce asked Peter kindly.

"Pretty good. Glad it's over," he admitted, rolling his shoulders. Bucky and Wanda smiled at his response.

Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "You did good. One of the best press conferences I've been to."

"Thanks," Peter said, tugging off his tie.

Tony whipped out his phone and dialed in a number. "I'm ordering pizza. You guys want any? These things take it out of me." People chimed in their requests. As usual, Tony ended up ordering around thirty pizzas. Food disappeared from this place faster than even a billionaire could keep up with, especially with some of their increased metabolism. Which made all nearby restaurants practically dependent on the large orders that they routinely received from the Avengers Facility.

Bucky brushed by Peter, murmuring in his ear, "Great job, kid." A smile broke out on Peter's face. He'd done it.


	5. Chapter 5

His interview was all anyone could talk about at school for the next week. He passed people watching it on their phones, talking with their friends about it, and it was even on the front cover of the school's newspaper. Peter had began to sincerely wish he hadn't done it, just so his face wouldn't be plastered everywhere he went. It made him feel even less normal than he already did at his own school, where he was routinely stopped to autograph student's paper scraps and notebooks.

Ned, of course, didn't understand why the attention was bothering him so much. His best friend practically thrived on his newfound popularity. Recently Ned had begun regaling him with tales of pretty, popular girls talking to him for more than a minute. About Peter, admittedly, but Ned was still over the moon about it.

MJ had just rolled her eyes when she first saw the school paper, but otherwise didn't even seem to notice the big deal. If Peter didn't have workouts with the Avengers everyday he'd be tempted to punch something to relieve his stress. As it was, all he could do was wait until his interview became old news. Which couldn't take much longer, right? Teenagers had short attention spans, like Wanda said. They'd move on to the next craze in a few days.

"Incredible, Peter!" Coach Wilson praised, looking at his stopwatch as Peter finished his mile run in 4 minutes flat.

He wasn't winded or sweaty. In fact, he hadn't even run at his fastest. All his training after school and on weekends had him in better shape than ever. He had to be, to keep up with Captain America. Peter pushed back his hair and said, "Well, I may have an unfair advantage, Coach."

The instructor chuckled. "Yeah, you do. Still, I would kill to have you on the track team."

Peter grinned at the image that evoked. "I'm pretty sure there's a law against that. Or at least a general unspoken rule."

"Probably," Coach Wilson conceded, then barked at some boys to keep running.

Ned jogged past Peter, wheezing slightly, mouthing 'Help me.' Peter grinned, but made a shooing motion. He had faith that Ned could handle a mile, however unpleasant it might be. The superhero went and joined MJ in the stands. The girl was already absorbed in a book, and he knew better than to pry her attention away when she was this invested in her reading. She could get downright scary if she wanted to. Instead, he just laid across the bleachers and pulled out his phone.

Clint had sent a picture of his son Cooper in a Spider-Man shirt. The caption read, U turned my own son against me. Peter couldn't help but smile. Maybe he'd convince Tony to head to the Barton's farm for a weekend. He liked it down there, it was so peaceful. And he liked Clint. The archer had only stayed for the first month in the Facility while Peter got settled into the Avengers before returning to his family and his retirement.

Peter was about to reply when high pitched giggling broke his concentration. A group of pretty girls were standing on the bleachers a little below him, whispering to each other and laughing. They kept sneaking glances up at him. Peter frowned. What were they doing? With the weird way sound echoed in the gym he couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Finally, one tore herself away from her group and walked confidently up the bleachers to sit by him. She gave him a dazzling smile. Peter sat up, intrigued. Why had they been talking about him? To his surprise, it was Betty Brant. She'd been good friends with Liz, but she had never really talked to Peter before, as she was pretty and popular, and he was, well, not. Or he didn't used to be, at least.

"Hey, Peter," Betty said with a brilliant smile, sitting down next to him like this was a common occurrence.

"Hey," he replied politely, trying to keep the confusion off his face.

"Listen, so my friends are throwing a party at my place this weekend," she said, peering at him from under her lashes. "Wanna come?"

Peter blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that. The only party he'd ever been invited to was Liz's, which had been a disaster. He'd never expected to be invited to a party again. But then again, he could tell Betty wasn't exactly asking him. She was asking Spider-Man. She wanted his fame to rub off on her.

"That's really nice, Betty, but, um-"

"Maybe we could even go together," she cut him off, smiling expectantly at him. After all, she was the one who turned people down, not the other way around. "Get to know each other."

"Thank you, but no," Peter said firmly. Her smile twitched. "I'm too busy for parties."

"Oh, well, let me know if you change your mind," she said, a bit coldly, and stalked back to her friends. Thankfully, they left for the locker room so Peter didn't have to listen to them no doubt insult him for turning her down.

MJ set her book down. She had a funny look on her face. Slightly annoyed, Peter irritably said, "What?"

The girl shrugged. "I would get used to that. Betty Brant isn't the only one who wants to be dating Spider-Man. She's just the first to ask."

Peter scrubbed his face. "This is so much less fun than I thought being a superhero would be."

"I wouldn't know," MJ said dryly, returning to her novel. Peter's lips curved upward unwillingly.

* * *

Just one hour left in school. Peter was impatient, tapping his foot restlessly under his desk. This morning, the only one to see him off the school was Pepper, because apparently Tony had been closer than ever to tracking down a terrorist group that had gotten their hands on Chitauri tech powered weapons procured from Toomes, before his arrest. Peter had argued that he should stay in case there was a breakthrough but Pepper had just kissed his temple and shoved him towards the garage.

Peter couldn't concentrate. What if Tony had already cracked it? Had they made a plan without him? Would he even be in on this op? Prior to his reveal, Peter had teamed up with the Avengers multiple times, especially when dealing with Chitauri tech because he was familiar with it. But ever since his public reveal, he'd been kept off active duty. That hadn't bothered Peter all summer, mostly because he'd been plagued by nightmares and depression. But now he was better, he slept through most nights, he could function properly at school, and he'd been training hard. He wanted to help again, he wanted to fight alongside the others.

He nearly jumped a foot when his phone rang. The teacher frowned at him as he pulled the device out of his pocket.

"Mr. Stark, put that away, you are still in class!" she scolded.

"I'm sorry, this is urgent," Peter replied, getting up and slinging his bag over his shoulder as he answered the call. All he said was "Tony?" before walking out of the room and into the quiet hall.

"Hey, Pete," Tony replied, sounding unusually chipper.

"Did you crack it? Cause if not, I just walked out of my English class for no reason," Peter said, hope blossoming in his chest. And excitement. There was a certain thrill that came from fighting, especially with the Avengers. A sense of other worldliness.

"Of course I cracked it, I'm me," Tony said, making the vain statement sound self-explanatory. "And get back here as fast as you can, everyone's already packing up."

Peter frowned, pausing in his tracks as he headed down to the parking lot. "Packing? Why? Where are we going?"

"Italy. Outside of Rome, specifically. We're taking the Quinjet over. Like a little family trip, to take down a crime ring. It should be fun," Tony said, a bit sarcastically, but Peter knew that was just his default tone. Anyways, it sure sounded better than whatever party Betty Brant was throwing.

"Okay, I'll be there in under an hour," Peter said, about to hang up.

"Mr. Stark!" Principal Morita called, standing in the center of the empty hallway in front of the teen. "Where do you think you are going?"

"Um, home. An emergency came up-" he tried to explain.

Principal Morita folded his arms. "Just because you are Spider-Man doesn't mean this school can tolerate you skipping whenever you feel like it. You are a student here, just like everybody else."

"I have my father, Tony Stark, on the phone if you'd like him to dismiss me properly," Peter offered, holding out the fancy phone.

"I'm afraid school policy requires your guardian be here in person to take a student out of school," he replied coolly. "Back to class, Mr. Stark."

"Sorry," Peter apologized, running past the principle. The security detail seemed startled to see him, but just smiled and waved. Anyone who's been in Tony Stark's employ was used to weird stuff happening. It's part of the job description. Peter hopped into his car, revved the engine to life, and shot down the streets of New York. He let Karen drive so he could text Ned and MJ to let them know he couldn't make it to decathlon practice today.

He pulled into the garage in record time, his seat belt off before the car had stopped fully. Natasha was waiting for him, already in her Widow suit. He didn't bother grab his bag. School was the farthest thing from his mind right now.

"That was quick," she said with a fleeting smile. They began walking inside together. "Everyone's already in the war room."

The war room was a nickname Clint had coined for the intelligence center, as that's where they all gathered to discuss missions. They walked to the war room in silence. Peter knew he would be filled in as soon as he was in there. People were rushing in and out. He saw Maria Hill for only a second before she went somewhere at a fast pace. In the very center, like the eye of the storm, the Avengers were sitting on chairs and desks, looking calm, if serious.

Tony was his own personal whirlwind, holographic screens surrounding him as he issued various commands to F.R.I.D.A.Y. Bruce and Rhodey were working at their own stations in a much calmer manner. Steve, Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Scott and Vision were watching them work intently.

"Kid's here," Nat announced. Everyone smiled and waved at the teen before returning their attention to the monitors. Peter went right over to Tony, his brain struggling to make sense of the hundreds of screens the billionaire had pulled up.

"What's up?" Peter asked. Tony looked at him in surprise, apparently not having noticed his entrance. Peter smiled. Tony got so caught up in his work sometimes.

"Oh, there you are," the billionaire said, waving him closer. "This is the target. Lovely decrepit hideout in the Italian countryside. We think they have a large stash of those Chitauri powered weapons Toomes was dealing out. Probably some of those Ultron guns, too."

Peter grimaced. Those things, however impressive, could be quite painful and difficult to maneuver around. The picture Tony had pulled up of the hideout didn't look very impressive. It looked like an old manor that hadn't been maintained very well. But he also saw details Natasha and Clint had trained him to spot. Security cameras, reinforced walls and fences, guard patrols. Not an easy target exactly, but very manageable for them.

"Is there a plan?" he asked. Steve and Bucky exchanged glances. Peter gave them a quizzical look. "What? Am I missing something?"

Steve got up and placed a hand on his shoulder, his expression soft. "Well, it's kinda up to you, Peter."

"What? Why?" he asked, flabbergasted.

"I know you've had... bad experiences with this tech in the past. If you don't want to participate in this mission, that's fine. Just say the word."

Peter was about to agree to the mission instantly, but Tony said, "Think about it, kid. This is serious stuff." Damn Tony, Peter thought. He knew him too well. But he did as requested and really considered.

Sam had told him about triggers this summer when a pipe had fallen during a training exercise and Peter had a panic attack. It had reminded him too much of the warehouse crashing down on him when he'd faced Toomes. Sam had also explained that sometimes it was better to face his fears, but noted dryly that perhaps in the middle of a fight wouldn't be the safest. Peter hated panic attacks, but he knew that he couldn't let that fear stop him, especially when his team needs him.

"I want to go," Peter said with conviction.

Steve smiled proudly, squeezing his shoulder. "I'm glad. I've been hoping to test out that new move we've been working on."

"I already loaded your suit into the Quinjet," Nat admitted with a wink. The Avengers were all looking at him like they were proud parents. He kind of liked it, to be honest. It was nice to see how much they all cared about him.

Tony, however, looked upset, which was strange. "What's wrong?" Peter asked, frowning.

"I'm not coming on this one," Tony explained, rubbing his face, then plastered on a smile. "Not that you need me. Cap's told me how good you're doing during training."

Ah. That did change things a little. Peter had never done a mission without Tony. It would strange, but he could do it. It would be harder for Tony, he knew. His father worried excessively about everyone, true, but since dragging Peter into the world of the Avengers, he was especially protective of Peter, even when they hadn't gotten along so well. And Tony didn't deal with stress well.

"Hey, I'll be fine, kid," Tony said, snapping Peter's attention back to him, clearly following his thought process. "I'll have Rhodey and Pepper to take care of me. Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," Peter agreed.

Steve looked back at his team. "Okay, original plan. Peter, Scott, Bucky, Wanda, and I are going. Is the Quinjet ready?"

Sam looked slightly put out at not being brought along. He only went on missions with Cap as some unspoken rule, so being left behind was a bit of a sore spot, even if he understood why he wasn't needed. His wings wouldn't do much good in what was likely to be indoors or underground fighting over storerooms of weapons. Nat, Bruce, and Rhodey seemed indifferent to their exclusion from this mission. Wanda and Vision hardly seemed aware of any conversation going on. She was tucked into his side and they were staring into each other's eyes, likely having some telepathic conversation. Peter still wasn't entirely clear on how their powers worked. When he'd asked Cap, Steve had just said they're weird.

Tony consulted a screen. "Yep. And I made some lovely upgrades to the engine lately. And the weapons system."

Bruce smiled fondly at his friend. "Of course you did. Didn't you do that last month?"

"What can I say, inspiration struck," Tony proclaimed, getting rid of his holographic displays. "And Peter had some ideas that I had to incorporate."

Peter smiled, pleased at the praise. But Steve just rolled his eyes, used to Tony's eccentricities, and said, "Alright, we leave in half an hour. You want to book us a room in Rome, Stark?"

"Fine, but Spider-Kid needs to be back by Monday for school," Tony said as he slipped on his shades and pulled out his phone.

"What? Tony, c'mon, it's Rome! Can't I have a little vacation?"

"You wanted to go to Midtown, which I agreed to, as long as you didn't prioritize Avenger-ing over your school work. That's the deal. Of course, if you would like to switch to a home schooling or a college course, then we could all head off to Rome for a little siesta-"

Peter grimaced. "Fine. Back by Monday."

Tony winked. "Good answer."


	6. Chapter 6

Peter took a steadying breath as he pulled on his mask. Karen greeted him like always, a familiarity he found reassuring right now. He checked to make sure his web shooters were loaded and that he had extras in his belt. It would be bad if he ran out in the middle of the mission. His fight with Toomes on Coney Island had taught him that. This was the first major op he'd done in months. He _had_ to do good, or else Tony wouldn't let him go on the next one.

Steve smiled at him. They were sitting in the Quinjet, which was slowly descending. Peter was sitting off to the side, his discarded earbuds next to him. They were set to jump in three minutes according to F.R.I.D.A.Y. Scott was testing out his suit, Wanda was tugging her hair out of her scarlet coat and Bucky was loading a shotgun, his arms bare, exposing his metal appendage.

"You ready?" Steve asked the teen, pulling his shield to his arm with the special magnets Tony had designed. The vibranium shield locked on with a low thump.

Peter could only nod. He knew his voice would come out shaky if he tried to talk. Luckily F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice came over the intercom so he wouldn't have to reply, saying, "Ramp opening. First group jump in one minute."

Steve clapped his hands together. "Alright, line up!"

The back of the Quinjet lowered into a ramp, cold air whooshing in and whipping Wanda's hair about. With a look of annoyance she tied her hair back messily. Bucky and Wanda held onto the wall as they made their way over to the opening. Peter could make out the house from the briefing far below them, getting bigger every second.

"Load up, Scott," Steve instructed, kneeling so that his shield rested on the floor.

Scott pulled on his helmet and pressed the button by his thumb, causing him to instantly shrink down. It was always strange to see a regular sized man shrink to the size of an ant, but they hardly took notice of it anymore. Peter's enhanced eyes could make out the minuscule figure that climbed onto Cap's shield. Peter stood up next, knowing what was coming.

"See you down there," Bucky promised. With that said, Wanda and Bucky jumped out of the Quinjet. Wanda's signature scarlet magic controlled her descent, but Bucky just free fell, rolling heavily as his feet hit the roof.

The Quinjet turned sharply to loop back around. On the roof, Peter could see gunfire and men being tossed around by a red haze. It looked like Bucky and Wanda's portion of the plan was going well. Peter and Steve, with Scott on his shield, occupied the spot their teammates had stood in a moment before.

"Remember, you need to take out the guards by the weapons vault or else Scott can't get in," Steve said seriously. Peter nodded, eyes tracking the spot he would need to web in seconds.

"He'll do great, Steve. Kid can take a few guards, no problem," Scott said confidently, and suddenly the teen felt better too. His team had faith in him. He could do this.

"Now!" Steve commanded, taking a running jump out of the hangar. Peter didn't hesitate in following. For a second there was only the howling of the wind as he plummeted, Steve breaking away from him. Then a building was rushing up to meet him. He saw Steve use his shield to break his fall as he rolled onto the roof to join Bucky and Wanda.

Twisting midair, Peter shot a web at a balcony rail and used his momentum to smash through a window on the lowest floor. He rolled to a stand, his eyes refocusing in the abruptly dimmer light. Perfect, he was in one of the unused store rooms, as planned. No doubt he would have company soon though. His entrance hadn't been subtle.

"Karen, which way to the vault?" Peter asked, ducking around a corner so no one could shoot at him through the broken windows. There hadn't been exact numbers on the amount of people in here, due to the fact a large chunk of the estate was underground, but it was likely people were patrolling the grounds. If they hadn't flocked to the roof to deal with the first two, that was.

The A.I.'s smooth voice replied instantly. "Take a right down this hallway. There should be a stairwell leading to the underground levels. At the very bottom should be the entrance to the vault."

Peter shot off in the direction she'd indicated, trusting his senses to alert him to any imminent dangers to his life. These missions were ideal for Peter. If they were doing large scale battles, his senses often got overwhelmed and his precognitive abilities didn't work nearly as well. Hallways with only one or two attackers at a time was much easier on his abilities, plus it was similar to what he'd dealt with patrolling the streets of New York.

He only encountered a couple men, who he easily webbed up. They'd been too startled by his sudden appearance to put up much of a fight. As part of the plan, the CIA would arrive soon to do the clean-up. All Peter had to do was make sure they were all set to be brought to jail.

When he found the stairwell, he stuck a web to the ceiling and used it to rappel down. As he descended down the narrow shaft, he said, "Karen, enhanced reconnaissance mode."

His vision changed to a thermal scan, allowing him to make out about four people guarding the vault. He gathered that they had been alerted to their presence, because they were all silent, guns raised to point at the doors, and his the recon mode didn't pick up on any chatter. They must be prepared, ready to shoot at the first thing that moves.

"Okay, great, they're expecting me," Peter grumbled, then clicked on his com. "Scott, I'm outside the vault. Where are you?"

"Three floors above you," Scott answered, panting. "About five minutes away, I think."

Peter frowned. A lot could happen in five minutes. Backup could come, or Scott wouldn't make it, or a hundred other variables. But he would have to make do. He'd spent all summer training for situations like this. He had to analyze his predicament and come up with a plan. Like always, that was easier done in a safe, risk free environment than in a life or death situation. And there was no way he could fail. Chitauri tech was too dangerous for people to be messing around with, which Peter knew from experience.

"Karen, do I have enough web right now to do about four web grenades?" Peter asked, a plan formulating in his mind. It depended on too many variables for him to like, but it was something he could work with. Improvisation was key to being a superhero, after all.

"Your left web-shooter is low," his A.I. informed him happily. With a practiced motion, he discarded the near empty clip from his left wrist and popped in a new magazine from his utility belt.

"Here goes nothing," Peter mumbled to himself, jumping up to crawl along the ceiling. He would need to time this _impeccably._ He came to a stop above the open doorway that lead directly to the men standing in front of the vault. They hadn't relaxed their position, guns pointed at the entryway, fingers primed to squeeze down on the trigger. This close, his reconnaissance could identify the guns as the last model Stark Industries had released before Tony shut down his weapons manufacturing. Which meant they'd be extremely good guns. But they wouldn't beat his Spider-Man suited, developed just a few months ago, also by Tony Stark.

"Please work," Peter whispered to nobody.

"You can do this, Peter," Karen said encouragingly. It actually helped. Shoving aside his nerves, he let his reflexes take over and began his plan.

He scrambled into the room along the ceiling. This was greeted by many startled exclamations and violent cursing. They tried shooting him, but he moved too quick. Bullets embedded themselves into the ceiling, raining dust down and worsening the shooters visibility. With a flip, he shot out multiple web grenades on the targets Karen highlighted through his lenses, which promptly exploded and pinned the guards to the walls. Peter landed nimbly on the balls of his feet, surveying his work.

"Excellent job, Peter," Karen complimented. "Might I suggest taking their guns as a precaution?"

"Right," he said aloud, using his webs to pull their weapons to him. He easily cracked them in half with his super strength, just in case they did get lose. Not that they should. Peter and Bruce had spent a lot of time developing a strong, stickier web over the summer, using much more complex equipment than that found in a high school chemistry lab.

"Scott? I've secured the vault," he said into his com, trying not to look at the captured men. He could practically feel their eyes burning into him. "Where are you?"

"One more minute!" Ant-Man replied, grunting coming over from his side. Probably fighting a guard or something right now.

"Good job, Peter," Steve complimented, joining in the conversation. "Hold it until Scott gets there. We're almost done securing the grounds."

Great. He would have to stay in the room with four hostile guards glaring at him from where they were cocooned to the wall. He bounced in place anxiously. The waiting between phases of the plan was always the worst. Adrenaline was still coursing through his veins, but he couldn't do anything until Scott got here to let him in to the vault. At least, not without potentially tripping off alarms.

"Okay, I'm in," Scott said. Peter quickly spotted the minuscule figure running across the floor. "Just a sec," Scott promised, sliding under the thick vault door. Peter rushed forward.

"Hey, droney, keep an eye on these guys," Peter said, and the small recon drone detached from his chest and went to keep watch on the webbed guards.

The vault door swung open, revealing Scott, who'd already pulled his helmet off. He grinned at the teenager. "Way to go, Spidey. I hear these are your specialty."

He stepped aside to reveal the inside of the vault. Rows upon rows of weapons were on display like precious jewels. Peter recognized many of them, or at least their power sources. Chitauri metals and cores, scraps from Ultron sentries, and other debris that the public didn't have access to. All dealt out by Toomes (before his imprisonment) and others like him.

He walked into the vault as if in a daze. There was the anti-grav gun that the ATM robbers had used on him. The Ultron based blaster laid on a table next to what looked like an older model of the Shocker's gauntlet. His thoughts seemed to come sluggishly, images of the ferry and homecoming night flickering through his mind.

"Peter, you okay?" Scott asked in concern, dropping a hand onto his shoulder.

He shook his head as if dispelling the images. "Yeah. These are definitely the tech we're looking for."

"Perfect," he said in approval, enlarging crates he'd shrunk in prep for this mission. "Get packing."

"Be careful. Some of this stuff is _really_ sensitive," Peter warned, remembering how little it had taken for the Washington Monument incident to occur. They set about carefully, but quickly, packing up the crates with the makeshift weaponry. As soon as they filled a crate, Scott would shrink it and put it in his belt before continuing.

"The grounds are secured," Steve's voice said through the coms. "How's it going in the vault?"

"We're packing up the last crates now," Scott answered, shrinking another load.

"Police are on their way to take the criminals. The Quinjet is ready when you are."

Peter tossed the last two weapons in. Scott shrunk it and then checked to mke sure that all the loads were secure in his belt. Droney came back in and reattached to Peter's suit. The man smiled at the young hero as they made their way back up to board the Quinjet.

"Nice job, kid," Scott complimented.

"Thanks," Peter said absently, reloading his web shooters. As they left, he had webbed up the criminals again. His webs only lasted so long, a problem he hadn't been able to fix yet, and there was no telling how long it would take the authorities to get all the way down to the vault.

"What are you going to do for your one day trip to Rome?"

Peter grimaced. "Write a report on the evolution of art in Italy for my history class. I totally forgot I had an essay assigned two weeks ago due on Monday."

Scott made a sympathetic face. "Bummer. At least your dad can bring you back whenever you want."

"At least there's that," he agreed, slipping off his mask and rubbing his temple. He was already dreading that essay. But a smile graced his face when he realized he'd done it. He'd completed his first mission without Tony and it had been a success. He couldn't wait to see Tony and tell him all about it.


	7. Chapter 7

"How was Italy?" MJ asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Great," Peter said without enthusiasm. "I got to see the Trevi Fountain. I wrote about it for history."

"Yeah, I think MJ was actually talking about the fact that you were involved in a raid of a terrorist base," Ned said, a worried and excited expression on his face. He still wasn't used to his best friend's double life and never ceased to be amazed by it.

"I know, Ned," he sighed, turning his phone over in his hand. "I don't know what you want me to say. It was a raid. We went in, tied up the bad guys, took the stash and left. For once, everything went according to plan."

"So you weren't hurt?" Ned asked anxiously.

"No, I'm fine. Bucky, Steve, and Wanda did most of the fighting."

Peter was getting annoyed. He didn't want to talk about this. School was supposed to be his reprieve, his haven from the insanity and danger of his Spider-Man life. More than enough people had already brought up his weekend activity to him, whether to praise or condemn, it hardly mattered to him anymore. It seemed like just when people were starting to get used to his presence, the press conference came out. And just as _that_ settled down, he was a key participant in taking down a terrorist base. It was like a never-ending cycle.

And on top of that, jet lag sucked. During his first time on a plane, the excitement of the experience had been enough to keep him from feeling it but now he did, and man, was it awful. He crashed as soon as he gotten back to the Facility, but had woken up at three in the morning, unable to go back to sleep. His body had also been in desperate need of sleep. He burned through food and energy at an insane rate. His enhanced body seemed to need more of _everything_ to function _._

"I'm glad you're okay. Especially since I'd be doing that physics project on my own otherwise," Ned joked. Peter cracked a smile, but didn't comment. Ned frowned at the superhero, whose vacant stare made it obvious his mind was elsewhere. "You're crazy distracted, dude. What's up?"

He looked down at his phone. "I'm kind of expecting Tony or Bruce to call soon. I mean, they probably won't, they can just wait until I'm home, but I really wish they would, especially with the project-" he rambled thoughtlessly.

"Slow down. Explain normally," MJ interrupted.

He took a steadying breath. "Did the news say why we raided that specific terrorist base?"

She made a face at him. "Of course not. Just that our saviors, the Avengers, were keeping the peace in the world and saving us average citizens from terrorist threats. Typical PR crap."

"Well, we picked that base because they had a huge store of the tech Toomes was selling," Peter admitted quietly as his friends leaned in to listen to him. "You know, weapons made from alien debris."

"Shit," Ned breathed out, paling. The Washington Monument incident was going to stick with them for their entire lives. Peter still had nightmares about what would happen if he hadn't gotten there in time, if he hadn't figured out the purple glowy thing was a bomb soon enough. That could have ended up so much worse than it had. MJ wasn't nearly as traumatized by the experience, as she hadn't been in the elevator, but she still knew what they were talking about and how serious it was.

Peter nodded in agreement to his friend's reaction. "Yeah, we were retrieving those. Tony may have, uh, brought it all back to the Facility to experiment with it. Without the government's consent."

"Can't he be arrested for that?" Ned asked, eyes wide.

"Yes, officially, but we wouldn't let that happen," he said, fiercely defensive of his father. Memories of Scott, Sam, Clint, and Wanda telling him about the Raft surfaced in his mind as his voice hardened. "That's never happening again." His tone suddenly lightened up dramatically. "Anyways, Tony plans on turning over all of the stuff in about four days. Which means we need to act quick if we want to learn anything about the stuff. I really want to be helping out in the lab right now, but school comes first, according to them." His frustration was easy to pick up on.

"That is seriously awesome," Ned declared, leaning back like his whole life had been fulfilled by this conversation. Ned was such a fanboy, Peter thought fondly. Even if he could be a bit exasperating.

"Just don't tell anyone, okay? This is all grade-A classified info."

MJ rolled her eyes, kicking up her feet. "I don't even talk to anyone but you two losers. Oh, and I'm having decathlon practice after school, and you had better be there, Stark. Alien weapons or not."

* * *

There was a knock on the door about halfway through first period. Peter raised his head wearily, the sound jarring to his ears. He'd been trying to sleep in the back of the room, and Mr. Harrington was kindly not calling him out on it. By far Peter's favorite teacher just for that reason alone. Mr. Harrington let in a guy, an office aid from the look of it. He handed the teacher a slip and left without a word. Mr. Harrington read the slip, a look of confusion passing over his face briefly.

"Mr. Stark," he called, holding out the slip.

Now Peter was confused. He stood up and accepted the proffered slip. Mr. Harrington resumed his lesson, but everyone was watching the superhero as he took his seat and unfolded the slip. In plain, black print it read:

 _Detention for: Peter Stark_

 _Time of Detention: After school till 4 from Monday-Thursday_

 _Cause of Detention: Skipping school on Friday afternoon_

Peter groaned to himself. Right. He'd left midday to prep for the mission. Which had been unexcused, because he'd forgotten to mention it to Tony or Pepper to fix. So it counted as skipping. The timing of this couldn't be worse. They only had limited time to study the alien tech, and school was already cutting into that. He couldn't afford to have detention too, and miss decathlon. If Tony didn't get to him first, MJ would kill him herself.

This only served to put him in an even worse mood. He could barely wait for the period to be over so he could call Tony and tell him he had detention. Hopefully, Tony wouldn't get _too_ mad. Sure, Tony had looked so excited to decipher the secrets of the alien materials with his favorite Spiderling, and had promised to make time for them to work together today, even with his busy schedule- Oh god, Tony was going to kill him.

"I'll see you at lunch," Peter yelled to Ned as he fled from the room, phone in hand, as soon as the bell rang. He walked down the halls, seeking a quiet place to make the call.

Instead, he got distracted by an uproar from the students in the hallway. At first, he just assumed there was a fight or something stupid that tends to draw crowds. But this wasn't heralded by the traditional chant of "Fight, fight, fight!" No, people were _screaming,_ the way people usually do at concerts of their favorite bands. Phones were out, recording something he couldn't see through the thick crowd. Curious about what had taken his place as center of attention, Peter budged through the crowd to see what the fuss was about.

"No way," he groaned as he saw what had captivated people's attention.

"There you are!" Tony called, striding forward and wrapping an arm around Peter's shoulders. No wonder there was a crowd, Iron Man was in Midtown High. "Did you know I got the most interesting memo this morning? Yeah, it was from your school. Something about ditching class on Friday."

"That was a big misunderstanding," Peter insisted. Happy shoved through the swarm of students, allowing Pepper to join Tony and Peter. She smiled and leaned down to hug Peter tightly. He'd hadn't seen her since last Thursday, though they'd talked on the phone while he was in Rome.

"I was planning on seeing you tonight, but I suppose I prefer seeing you now," she said, looking him over protectively for any injury, even knowing he healed in a couple hours. She smiled, satisfied that he was okay. "How was Rome?"

"Um, good." Peter noticed that they had started walking down the hallways, Happy acting as a bodyguard and keeping the swarm of students at bay. "Can I ask why you are here and where we are going? Not that I don't like seeing you guys, but this is school. I thought we were keeping hero-y stuff and school stuff separate."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well, that was the plan. But as your legal guardians, it is within our rights to meet with your school principal regarding your detention."

"We really should have done this sooner, but there needed to be an adjustment period," Pepper continued, much to Peter's confusion. "Special arrangements must be made and such, to accommodate for your unusual occupation."

"What?" he asked blankly, but they had reached the principal's office. Morita was standing outside it, probably trying to figure out why so many students were crowding the hallway instead of going to class. He blanched a little when he saw Iron Man and the CEO of Stark Industries striding towards him, their adoptive son kept protectively between them.

"Hello. You must be Principal Morita," Pepper said pleasantly, holding out her hand. "I'm Pepper Stark, and this is my husband, Tony. We're here to talk to you regarding our son, Peter."

Morita shook her hand slowly, but Pepper didn't show if that phased her or not. "Welcome to Midtown, Mr. and Mrs. Stark."

"Thank you," she continued smoothly. "I do hope you can chat with us now. We have such busy schedules, you understand, I'm sure. It might be difficult for us to come at a different time."

"Right, of course," Morita said, getting a grip on himself. He opened the door to his office, ushering them in. "Please, I'll see you right now. Peter, why don't you head to class now while I talk with your parents, hmm?"

"Actually, do you mind if he stays?" Tony said, obviously rhetorically because he just walked right in, arm still around his son. "He's pretty relevant to this conversation, after all."

"Yes, fine," Morita conceded, a bit sourly. Happy made to enter the room too, but Morita blocked him. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"He's good, he's with me," Tony said flippantly.

Morita didn't budge. "Unless he's a guardian or relative of Peter, I'm afraid he isn't really allowed into a private meeting. Might I suggest he wait outside?"

"We'll be fine, Happy," Pepper assured their long-time friend.

The man was clearly displeased with this turn of events. Not seeing any alternative, he announced grumpily, "I'll wait outside."

Pepper seated herself in front of the principal's desk, pulling Peter down to sit beside her. Tony sat on his other side, ankle resting on his knee casually. Peter could hardly believe that _Iron Man_ was sitting in a high school principal's office as if he had nowhere better to be. The splendor of Tony Stark didn't fit in with the standard carpeting and wallpaper, the slightly outdated computer on the desk, or the cheaply framed degrees and pictures of WWII. The whole scene seemed impossible, yet here they were.

Tony clapped his hands together. "Okay. How about we start with undoing that detention that Peter did not earn?"

"I would respectfully disagree, Mr. Stark," Morita said diplomatically. "I witnessed Peter leave school while class was in session without a guardian signing him out early. According to the policy here, that merits a detention, whatever the circumstances may be."

"As I'm sure you're aware, Peter is in a unique situation," Pepper said, using her years of experience charming and persuading businessmen to see her point of view. "He is a student, yes, but he also has a job. He answers to the UN panel in charge of the Avengers. And if they call, he is mandated, by international law, to come. Otherwise he could be arrested indefinitely."

"Which I respect," Morita answered, clearly uncomfortable. His years of teaching hadn't prepared him for this scenario. Having a superhero student was unprecedented. "But this school can't afford to have its students coming and going as they please."

"Of course," Pepper said soothingly. "But we can't afford to have Peter holed up in detention for doing his job. Neither can Tony nor I afford to take time off to sign him out every time he has a mission. It's impractical. So I propose we meet in the middle."

"What do you have in mind, Mrs. Stark?"

Peter had to hid his grin. The world may love and fear his father, but his mother could just as easily bring the world to its knees, without using a weapon. Even Tony knew better than to open his mouth and ruin Pepper's negotiations.

Pepper gestured with her hands as she spoke. "Peter will need to be able to leave campus at his own discretion. Of course, you are free to contact us to assure that he is leaving for work and not just fun. Not that Peter would abuse that ability."

Peter nodded in agreement. "Of course not."

Morita looked thoughtful. "I will have to bring up your proposal to the board of directors. This is a very unusual situation, and we have many other students whose education we have to consider. Having Peter come and go from campus at will can be disruptive to a learning environment."

Tony leaned back and said, "I can assure you, the more you cooperate with us, the easier it will be to convince Stark Industries to grant a generous donation to your school."

Morita didn't look impressed. "Are you trying to blackmail me, Mr. Stark?"

"Of course not. This is bribery, not blackmail. Think of it as an incentive. After all, my company employs a large number of people in the STEM field, which is where most of your students will end up. Working with my wife and I would be in your best interests."

Morita just stood up. Tony looked as innocent as if he had just offered a grant, not given a veiled threat. "Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. and Mrs. Stark. Peter's detentions will be erased unless the board denies your request. Have a nice day."

Pepper stood and smiled sweetly. "Thank you for your time."

* * *

Peter had the courtesy to wait until they were outside before exploding. After all, his classmates had been spoiled enough for one day by being in the presence of Tony Stark. No doubt headlines were already circulating about the surprise visit to Midtown in the middle of a school day. Peter didn't want to add to those.

"What the hell? Did you really just threaten the principal?" Peter demanded once they were in the parking lot, an annoyed expression on his face.

To his surprise, Pepper was the one who shrugged and said, "It was just to insure you weren't being punished unfairly for doing Avengers work. It wasn't a big deal."

"And it was all a bluff, anyways," Tony added, an arm around his wife. "He just needed a little nudge to come to our point of view. And it worked, so no harm, no foul."

An Audi pulled up alongside the family. Happy popped out and opened the passenger side door. Peter had noted wryly that Happy was much more respectful and helpful towards his parents than towards him. Then again, they'd known each other much longer, and Happy had really warmed up to the young Avenger over the summer. Seeing that they weren't done talking, Happy stayed waiting by the car.

"Okay, how about the fact that you probably just caused a media riot?" Peter asked as he crossed his arms.

"That happens whenever I walk out the front door," Tony said dismissively.

"Not to me."

Pepper stepped forward and took Peter's hands in hers, meeting his gaze calmly. "Peter, sweetie, I know you don't like the attention. You handle it so well, and we're so proud of you for that. And we do everything we can to try and help you stay out of the spotlight. But you have to understand that you're our son. That means if we feel someone is treating you unfairly, whether that be the principle or the president, we're going to fix it. We're going to fight for you. Whatever the press decides to make of it doesn't matter. All that matters is you. Okay?"

Peter's negative feelings washed away. A bit of embarrassment took its place. He'd never really had anyone be so candid about their feelings for him before. But mostly he just felt happy. That he had Pepper and Tony, who would do anything for him, who cared about him and were here for him. It felt really nice to know he could lean on them and they wouldn't even mention it. They would just be there.

"Okay," Peter said with a small, happy smile.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hey, Peter," Bruce greeted casually, looking up from the calculation he was running on a computer and smiling. "You're here early, I thought you had decathlon."

"MJ let us leave a bit early. And I got here as fast as I could," he replied, dropping his school bag onto a table. He hadn't wanted to waste time putting his stuff in his room. "What have I missed?"

"Nothing much. Tony figured out a few of the components we still weren't sure about, but right now we're just waiting for F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run some calculations. You want to check up on that?"

"Yeah," he said eagerly, going over to what had become his station in the largest lab where the big projects were done. He easily immersed himself in the work. The state of the art technology was incredible, and he relished any chance he got to work in the lab. Plus, the subject was fascinating. The alien materials were like nothing he had ever seen. If it weren't for the fact the materials would have to be turned over to the Department of Damage Control tomorrow, he would love to experiment with the pieces. From what he could tell, Toomes had barely scratched the surface with the possibilities for these materials.

"It's a shame Thor isn't around right now," Bruce mused when Peter brought up the fact that they could make so many incredible things with these technologies. "He might know more about this stuff. Though probably not. He leans more towards the art of fighting than the science."

Peter merely shrugged. Thor was the only Avenger he hadn't met yet, for whatever reason. No one seemed to have a definitive answer for where their teammate was. He also got the sense that Thor had only been very close with Bruce and Steve. Everyone else had kind of shrugged, disinterested. Though it wasn't too unusual for Avengers to come and go as they pleased. After all, Scott's family was in San Francisco, Clint was often with his family too, and Bruce and Tony were always leaving to go give lectures at prestigious scientific conferences.

"Is Tony around?" Peter asked curiously. He'd assumed the man was just getting a cup of coffee, but he hadn't shown up and Peter had been here for a while. All the other times Peter had helped out in the lab over the last few days, Tony had been in here, frantically working.

"No. Pepper forced him to go out to dinner with her. He tends to forget to do basic human functions such as eat and sleep when he's working on something important," Bruce said with a half fond and half exasperated tone.

"That does sound like him," Peter agreed with a grin. He checked a few of the programs he was running before saying, "Is there any way we could keep this tech? I mean, the uses... all the inventions and energy sources and who knows what else we could make. I bet Tony already has blueprints for some of his ideas."

Bruce tinkered with a chunk of a Dark Elf ship, seemingly avoiding Peter's excited gaze. Then he sighed and smiled sadly at the teen. "No. The government would never let us keep it. Not after Sokovia."

"Sokovia? What does Sokovia have to do with this stuff?" he asked in confusion, swiveling around in his chair to face Bruce. The doctor had a sort of pained grimace on his face.

"Before Sokovia, we managed to obtain a very powerful alien relic. Tony had the idea to use it to create a sort of guardian for the world. I thought it was crazy, but he had me intrigued. So I helped him. Only something went horribly, horribly wrong. And Ultron was created," Bruce finished.

Peter was aghast. "You and Tony made Ultron?"

Bruce turned thoughtful. "You know, I don't think we did," he mused. "Certainly, we expedited it, and I even blamed us at the time, but the experiments Tony and I ran were all complete failures. We had just about given up when Ultron came to fruition. My guess is that the scepter, the alien relic, somehow warped our work and made its own creation. That scepter also gave Wanda and her brother powers, and helped with Vision's creation as well. We were messing with powers beyond our capabilities that were better left untouched."

"So, the government doesn't want us to have alien tech because last time you had this tech, Ultron was created and nearly caused mass extinction?"

"Just about. They also just don't like us in general. We have this annoying tendency to point out that more often than not, they're the ones in the wrong, not us."

"I don't really like that."

"I know. But for now, we have to roll with it. Gain back some trust. The Sokovia Accords nearly ruined the Avengers. A lot of people lost faith in us. Once we get that faith and trust back, then we can start experimenting with otherworldly materials. Even then we'll have to careful though. For right now, let's just take advantage of our last few hours with this stuff."

"Right," Peter agreed, turning back to his station. He wouldn't let a second more of his precious research time go to waste.

* * *

"Jesus Christ, how long has he been down here?" Peter stirred slightly at the sudden noise, but didn't quite wake.

"I don't know. I had to leave six hours ago to deal with an emergency. I assumed Steve or someone would check up on him. They must not have known he was down here."

"How could they not know?" the first voice demanded, sounding angry.

Peter wished they would go bicker somewhere else. He hadn't slept this well in a while. Maybe if he kept his eyes closed, they would go away. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Or maybe if he fell back asleep, he would be able to sleep through their conversation.

Sadly, they kept talking. "He must have come straight to the lab after school and I didn't tell anyone he was down here on my way out. Poor kid must be exhausted."

"Well, he can't sleep down here. Something could explode or attack him. Hate to wake him up though. I know he's been staying up late these last few days, between the mission and the tech. Not exactly healthy," the first person said in a concerned tone. "I thought they were supposed to be less work when they're older."

"We are dealing with a unique situation. Most teenagers don't have super powers and save the world every other day. Let's get him to bed."

"No, I got him. You should get some sleep too. I'm having the interns start packing up the stuff anyways. It has to be with the DODC by tomorrow morning anyways." The two men then said goodbye, and Peter felt peaceful. That meant they were leaving so he could sleep in peace.

He heard a sigh, and then something soft was shaking his shoulder. "Peter, come on, kid, wake up. You don't want to sleep down here, trust me."

Peter groaned, opening his eyes slowly and lifting his head even slower. Tony's face was smiling down at him. The billionaire laughed at the teen's look of annoyance. Peter yawned and stretched, rubbing his eyes, all while glaring. It wasn't the most fearsome sight, to say the least.

"I promise I'll leave you alone when you're in an actual bed," Tony assured him, helping him stand up.

Peter was too tired to argue. He collapsed onto bed as soon as he was in his room, quickly falling back to sleep. Tony smiled and left, the door clicking shut softly behind him.

* * *

Tony wouldn't mind getting some sleep too. It had been a long day and he knew Pepper was probably already fast asleep. Joining her sounded really nice.

But first he had a few forms to finalize regarding the transport of the alien technology. He'd been putting it off so he could actually study the stuff, but it needed to get done now. Even he could only procrastinate so long. He settled on a couch in his office, using his holographic screens to take care of the forms.

"Boss?" his A.I. asked a bit later.

He frowned. "What is it, F.R.I.D.A.Y.? I'm in the middle of something."

"Peter seems to be having a nightmare. His heart rate is accelerated and he's thrashing. He hasn't woken up yet," she responded.

He was up in a flash and hurrying to Peter's room. The teen had gone over a week without a nightmare, which was long enough for Tony to start hoping these were over. Apparently not, not that he had really thought that would happen anytime soon.

As soon as Tony got into the room he made sure to stay away from the bed. There were two types of nightmares with Peter: the ones when he lay deathly still, whimpering in his sleep, sometimes screaming, and the ones when he thrashed and kicked as he tried to fight off some nonexistent threat in his dream. Last time Tony had tried to wake him from the latter type, Peter had kicked him so hard the billionaire's ribs had been bruised and he had trouble breathing. Peter had been horrified, and Tony didn't want to put him through that again. The kid had enough going on without feeling guilty all the time.

It went against his instincts, though, to stay away from the small, terrified figure in the bed. Nothing about Peter scared him, and more than anything he wanted to hold the boy, to make all his fears and worries melt away. But there were some things that even billions of dollars couldn't help with.

"Peter, kid, I need you to wake up now," Tony said loudly, bouncing on his feet as he struggled to remain in place. Peter was still thrashing and was likely to attack before he knew what the threat was, due to his abnormally fast reflexes that bordered on precognitive. "Come on, Peter, wake up!"

The teen bolted upright into a sort of crouch, ready to either go on the offense or defense in a split second. Tony held his hands up and stayed as still as he could. Peter wasn't fully awake yet and would be highly disorientated for a moment.

"Just me, kiddo," Tony assured him. "Just me, I promise."

Peter looked confused. "Tony?"

"Yep. We're in your room. Just us. All's good. Isn't that right, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Yes, boss," the A.I. responded instantly.

Tony held out his hands. "See? All good. Just a dream. You're fine."

Peter sighed and dropped onto his bed, rubbing his temples. Tony approached slowly and sat next to him, carefully placing his hand on the teen's back. Peter's shirt was sweat drenched from his thrashing and his foot was still tangled in his sheets. Quite honestly, he was a mess, and Tony felt like it was his fault. He should have been taking better care of Peter, should have made sure he went to sleep at a reasonable hour instead of staying up till 3 a.m. in the lab these last few days. Peter had probably skipped meals too. And then there was the regular stress of school and life. It was no wonder the kid was having trouble sleeping.

"Thanks for waking me," Peter mumbled, leaning into his father's side.

Tony rubbed soothing circles along his back. "Of course."

"I don't want to go back to sleep," he admitted.

"Okay. Wanna watch a movie?" Tony suggested. Peter blinked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Or we could do something else. Entirely up to you."

Now Peter looked suspicious. "Is this a trap? You're being incredibly easy-going. It's scaring me. I feel like this is a trap. I have school tomorrow and you're going to let me stay up all night watching movies?"

Tony smiled. "I'm being serious. Pepper is the responsible parent, remember? And don't worry about school, I'll take care of it."

Peter was too tired and disturbed from his dream to really think about what Tony was saying. All he knew was that right now, nothing sounded better than watching a movie with Tony and a bowl of popcorn. So he agreed. The pair moved to the couch and popped in a comedy. Tony even made a slightly burnt bowl of popcorn. It was perfect. They were halfway through a second movie when Peter fell asleep, and by the end of it, Tony was passed out too.

* * *

Tony woke to the sound of a coffee machine's alarm. He was a bit confused as to why he was on a couch in the living room and why it felt like his right side had lost all feeling. Then he remembered last night, Peter's nightmare, and their impromptu movie marathon. Which meant...yep. His right side was numb because Peter was laying against him. The teen weighed more than he looked. With a series of careful maneuvers he'd perfected, he extricated himself from Peter and stumbled over to the kitchenette.

"Good morning, Tony," Bruce greeted cheerfully, sliding a mug of coffee over to him. The billionaire caught it automatically and took a sip. "I see you and Peter had a rough night. What happened to getting him to bed?"

"He had another nightmare and didn't want to go back to sleep so we watched movies," Tony explained, cracking his neck. "What time is it anyways?"

"Nine," Bruce replied. Tony groaned. That meant he'd gotten a grand total of four hours of sleep. Not his worst, but still not great. Not to mention the fact that he was behind on paperwork and that was time lost. "You looked like you could use the sleep so I didn't wake you."

"Thanks," he said absently, pulling out his phone and groaning again at all the messages and calls that he'd missed. It seemed he would had another long day ahead of him.

"Should I wake Peter up?" the doctor asked, looking over at the limp form on the couch.

Tony looked up with little interest. "Nah, let him sleep."

"Tony, I hate to bring this up, but you can't just let Peter stay home every time he has a nightmare."

"This is the first time," Tony complained. "And he's had a long week. He deserves a rest day."

Bruce pushed up his glasses, sighing. "I know, I understand. But is this really the best way to deal with Peter's nightmares?"

Tony sat down heavily, rubbing his forehead. "Well, I don't know what else to do, okay? He's trying to be everywhere and do everything, and he's getting stretched thin and he's not taking care of himself, and I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm trying to be there for him, and everything is a giant mess that gets worse everyday, and I can't fix that either-"

Bruce was alarmed now. "Tony, take a deep breath."

The billionaire closed his eyes and tried to steady himself. He'd had a long night and a busy week, that was all. He was just tired. But he needed to pull himself together, because Bruce was right, Peter wasn't okay, and it was his job to fix that. He'd promised May he'd take care of Peter. May had been slowly getting more and more anxious when she realized that she couldn't help Peter, couldn't relate to him or get him to open up to her. So she'd turned to the Avengers, the only ones who might understand her nephew's situation. Tony had arranged for her to go on a nice vacation to get in some relaxation, under strict oath to keep her updated on Peter's mental health.

"Okay, there. I'm calm," Tony said, in a much more collected manner this time.

"Good. What were you trying to say?" Bruce asked, prompting him to open up a little.

"That I have absolutely no goddamn clue how to help Peter," Tony said miserably. "I can't even take care of myself! And Peter's in denial that he isn't okay. He keeps acting like he can handle everything. School, homework, decathlon, training, lab work, missions. And he can't keep going at this pace. He's going to fizzle out. Watch, he's going to wake up and pretend like the nightmare that had him scared to go back to sleep was no big deal."

Bruce was looking rather grim. "I know, Tony. But you need to do something. Tell him to cut back on something, or limit something else. Honestly, what he should be doing is talking to a therapist or something. Maybe Sam?"

"Sam did therapy with him over summer, and it clearly didn't work," Tony said dismissively.

"At least ask Sam's opinion then," he replied sternly. Tony had a habit of not liking other people's suggestions, even when they were good one's. But Bruce could usually get through to him. "He's the only one of us who knows how to deal with PTSD. And Sam did help. But sometimes people relapse, of they need more time in therapy than others. Trust me, I've been doing anger management for years now. Problems don't just go away in a few months."

Tony made an annoyed face. "Why are you so smart? I thought that's my job."

"I'm better with people. Machines are more your thing."

The billionaire just shrugged. "Fair enough."


	9. Chapter 9

"How's Hawaii?" Peter asked, pacing along the ceiling of his room.

"It's great," May gushed enthusiastically. "I'm going to have to come back here with you. It's gorgeous, and this hotel is amazing. Massages, spas, swimming pools, buffets, everything. I'm having a really good time."

"That's awesome," he said sincerely, smiling at her happiness. His aunt deserved this vacation. "I'm glad you're happy."

"Thanks, Peter. That's really sweet," she replied adoringly. "But seriously, enough about me. Tell me about you. How's school? How are your friends? Is Stark treating you alright?"

He kind of wished they could keep talking about her Hawaii vacation, but she would know something was up instantly if he tried to change the subject or lie. Lying was not his strong suit. He just really didn't feel like talking about himself right now. Not when anything he said would likely cause her stress, and she was supposed to be relaxing on vacation.

"School's okay," he said simply. "Lot of homework and stuff, but Ned and MJ make it better. They're good. Busy studying for the decathlon."

"Oh, when's your competition? I want to come," May asked cheerfully.

He leaned his forehead against the cool glass of his window and shut his eyes. "I, um, I quit the decathlon team."

"What?" she blurted out in shock. "Why? What happened, Peter?"

He sighed, dropping from the ceiling onto his bed. He leaned back against his headboard, grabbing a ball of web from his nightstand. He absently tossed it around in his hands as he tried to answer May's question without causing her to hop on a private jet right now and come baby him.

"Nothing happened, exactly. I was just getting stressed out, trying to do everything. So I talked it out with Tony and Pepper, and we agreed it would be a good idea to quit decathlon."

"So they pressured you into this," she concluded. Her opinion of Tony still wasn't very high. She blamed him for Peter's injuries that had caused his big identity reveal, though she did appreciate how much he had helped out her and Peter.

"No, no! Nothing like that. Decathlon is every day, and it's even more studying on top of my homework, and I'm in all those advanced classes this year. It just made the most sense to drop it. And it doesn't have to be permanent or anything. MJ will let me back in whenever I sort things out."

"What do you need sorted out?" she pressed.

Oh, god. He just couldn't seem to get his words to come out right. He was failing miserably at not worrying her. Why were things never easy in his life?

"Just, balancing everything. A lot has changed, you know? I'm still getting used to things."

Her tone softened. "Oh, I know, Peter. I know, honey. It's a little strange for me, too, you know. I keep seeing your face on the news and on magazines. Have I mentioned how proud I am of you for how well you handled that press conference?"

"Only, like, a million times," he said with a eye roll. May and the Avengers were like his own personal cheerleading team. Which was kind of nice, not that he would ever admit that to anyone. "I'm just glad the conference worked. _Way_ less reporters show up at my school now, which is a benefit in itself."

"That's good. Though I wish they would leave you alone entirely."

"Me, too," he said with a smile. Then he saw the time. "May, I have to go. I'll call you soon, okay?"

"Okay. I love you," she said.

"I love you too." He hung up and tossed the phone down. That was a disaster avoided. He didn't want to talk about his mental health right now. He'd already had a therapy session with Sam today, per part of his and Tony's agreement to take better care of himself, and it seemed to be working okay so far. Peter had been having less nightmares and was sleeping easier. While it was unpleasant to talk about his worst fears and experiences, he liked Sam and the veteran made it feel less like a therapy session and more like a chat.

He leapt off his bed and headed down the hall. He was already late for dinner, and for once everyone was there. Clint had dropped by for the weekend and Rhodey was back from a military op he'd participated in. When he entered the living room/kitchenette, everyone was already eating and chatting. He waved at the archer, who was sharing a chair with Natasha, and made his way over to Tony and Steve in the kitchen.

"There you are," Steve said, handing him plate. "I was starting to think you weren't coming."

"I was talking to May on the phone," he explained, mouth watering at the sight of fresh hamburgers laid out across the island. He started heaping the delicious food onto his plate.

"How is Aunt Hottie?" Tony asked, causing Peter to give him a disgusted look. It was bad enough random men hit on his aunt, why did Tony have to do it too? Especially since Tony was married.

"She's fine. Really enjoying Hawaii. I'm starting to think she isn't coming back," Peter joked.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? Did you tell her what you've been up to lately?"

"Mm-hmm," Peter said, adding some ketchup to his burger. "I told her I quit the decathlon team. She understood."

"That's nice. Did you tell her that you're starting therapy again?" Tony asked, though he clearly knew the answer already. He probably had F.R.I.D.A.Y. listen in on the conversation and report back to him. It wouldn't surprise Peter at all.

"Was I supposed to?"

Steve had to turn away hide his smile. It was amusing to see a sixteen year old kid go toe-to-toe with billionaire, Iron Man, Tony Stark. It was especially more amusing to see Tony get so exasperated about it. He went and joined Bucky and Sam on the couch so that he wouldn't disturb the father and son's argument.

"Peter, don't you think your aunt deserves to know what is going on with you?"

"She worries too much," he said with a frown. Then his tone turned bitter. "And anyways, it's not like this is new. I'm why she left, right? Because I was a mess, and she blamed herself."

"It wasn't that simple," Tony said, massaging his temple. "And she didn't leave until she knew you were getting help and getting better. She would want to know if anything changed with that."

"It's not a big deal. I've done therapy before, and she knows that," Peter argued.

"Jesus, kid, you don't need to protect May. You don't need to protect me, or Pepper, or any of us! We can handle it, we're grown-ups, most of us have been through this, or at least know how to help. You need to take care of yourself, Peter! You need to tell us what's going on with you, you need to let us help you." Tony let out a sharp exhale. Peter was still, eyes round and sad. Many of the Avengers were pretending they weren't listening to the pair. "I don't want to yell at you or lecture you, okay? But we have to work on this. You can't keep protecting us when you're hurting."

"I just don't want to worry anyone," Peter whispered.

Tony slung an arm around the teen. "I know. But you're going to worry us more if you keep stuff from us. So you are going to talk to May about this or I am. And she'd rather hear it from you."

"I'll call her," the teen promised, leaning his head on Tony's shoulder. Tony just smiled and rubbed the teen's arm. "I'm sorry."

Tony held him a little tighter. "Me too."

* * *

"Do you have to leave?" Peter asked despondently, sitting on Tony's bed.

The billionaire smirked, continuing to toss some clothes into a bag. "What? Are you going to miss me?"

"Yes."

Tony looked over at the teen. He could tell his answer was entirely sincere. So he swallowed and sat down next to him, just like the first time they met.

"I'm gonna miss you, too. But I have to go. Cap and the others need me."

Peter didn't meet his eyes, picking at the covers instead. "I just don't understand why I can't come with you. I've been training a ton, I can do this."

"It's not that easy, Peter. I know you've been working with Steve, and I know you're all super-powered. But these missions can get really, really dangerous."

"I can handle danger," he said, sounding offended.

Tony wanted to smack his forehead. He wanted to build a time machine and apologize to anyone who had dealt with him when he was a teenager, because he was sure he had been at least as difficult as Peter was to deal with at that age. He knew the kid had super strength and super healing powers. He knew he'd even invited the kid to fight with and against the Avengers. But there were some things he couldn't drag the kid into. Not yet, at least.

"This is different. This isn't fighting Cap, or a low level crime organization. This is going to be shooting to kill, actual danger, shit's going to go wrong, because it always does. It'll be chaos."

"Come on, Tony, I've fought with you guys before!" he argued.

"Kid, trust me, you don't want in on this one. We're going in to kill. That's the assignment from the U.N. No prisoners on this one. You're not ready for that. Don't even try to lie to me. In fact, I hope you're never ready for that."

Peter tried a different route. "Then let me come and help with civilian evacuation."

"I have the Iron Legion for that. Why do you want to come so badly? Bruce, Sam, Wanda, and Vision are staying back too, we're not babying you or something. Come on, talk to me," Tony prompted, not drawing his gaze away from his son's face. Peter mumbled something indistinctly. "What was that?"

"I'm scared, okay?" Peter blurted out, falling backwards and letting out a sharp breath. "You haven't gone on a mission in months and I won't be there. What if you get hurt, or, or…" He couldn't even finish. He draped his arm over his eyes, but Tony could still tell he was on the verge of tears.

"I'm not going to lie and say that there's no way that'll happen. We both know it's possible. But I can promise that I'll be careful," he said, as Peter peeked at him from under his arm.

"I know you'll careful. I'm scared that won't be enough," he admitted.

Honestly, Tony wasn't sure what to say. Comforting people had never been one of his many skills, nor had being open with people. He liked to bottle up his problems. But he had to work with Peter on this. They had to be able to trust each other. Which meant he had to get a little more vulnerable than he was comfortable with.

Tony sighed. "I guess we'll find out. But promise me something?" Peter met his gaze but didn't say anything. Tony continued anyways. "Promise me you won't mope the whole time I'm gone. It's only a few days. Hang out with your friends or something."

The teen frowned. "Okay. I promise."

"Come here," Tony said, opening his arms. Peter looked surprised, but sat up nonetheless, and hugged him. He buried his face in his father's shoulder, clinging to him. Tony didn't often engage in physical affection, which only proved to the teen that Tony would miss him and didn't really want to go either.

"Tony?" the teen said in a small voice.

"Yeah?"

"Can I...can I call you Dad?" If possible, his voice got even smaller, and terribly vulnerable. Tony blinked tears back as he hugged his kid even tighter. He knew what that meant to Peter. He knew he hadn't even called his uncle that.

"Yeah. I'd like that a lot, kid."

"Okay."

"Okay."

* * *

"Dudes, we still have to do that chemistry project," Ned blurted out suddenly, ending with a groan. "God, that's due tomorrow. I totally forgot."

"Same here," Peter said with a frown, his phone in his hand. He'd been compulsively checking it every few minutes for the last two days. He didn't want to miss a single call from Tony or any of the others.

MJ gave them both an annoyed look. "Well, we still have to do it. Should we ask Cobbwell if we can use his lab?"

"No way, he never stays late," Ned said, shaking his head. Then he brightened up and turned to his best friend who was staring intently at the device in his hand. "Why don't we go over to your place?"

"What?!" Peter exclaimed, leaping up.

"Yeah, I mean, don't you have your own lab? We could use that," Ned explained.

"No, no way!" he blurted out, shaking his head. "I don't even know if I'm allowed to bring my friends over. It's not like I'm living in a mansion. The Facility is Avengers HQ. I think the whole thing is top secret, undercover stuff. It's an actively operating intelligence center. I think it's location is classified."

"First off, that is awesome. And secondly, just ask Iron Man," Ned suggested in a tone that implied that was obvious.

Peter hesitated. MJ picked up on it of course. "What? What's wrong, Peter?"

He sighed. "I can't actually ask Tony right now. Or Cap or Nat. They're in South America right now. Which you two don't know, okay? I'm not technically supposed to know either, but Tony can't keep his mouth shut."

"Is that why you've been so on edge all day? Dude, I don't think you have to worry about Iron Man or Captain America. They've fought freaking aliens, after all. They're practically invincible."

Peter just frowned, stroking his phone with his thumb. Tony had left two days ago and had only called once, last night, just for a few minutes to let him know the op was on schedule and that he was fine. Then he'd had to go. Peter hated this, the constant state of worry and uncertainty. It was unsettling. He'd talked about it with Sam yesterday during one of their sessions. The Avenger had told him the same reassuring nonsense as everyone else had, but it hadn't eased his unhappiness.

"I know, I know. I'm going to call Bruce, see if he has an objection to this," Spider-Man said reluctantly, dialing the doctor's number. He almost wished he wouldn't pick up. But no one would miss a call from Peter, especially while Tony was away. His father would have no trouble blaming the Avengers if Peter got hurt under their protection.

Bruce answered almost instantly, of course. "Peter? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," he said instantly, having anticipated the question. "Sorry to bother you."

"No, it's no trouble. What's up?"

Peter smiled sheepishly even though the doctor couldn't see him. "I, uh, actually wanted to ask if I can bring some friends home today."

"Oh," Bruce said, sounding understandably surprised. "I guess? How many?"

"Just two. Ned and MJ."

"Yeah. Try and keep them in the living quarters though. We don't need them seeing top secret government information."

Peter smiled. "Yeah. Thanks, Bruce."

"See you later, kid."

"Wait," Peter blurted out, turning away from Ned's curious gaze. "Have you heard from Tony or Cap? I haven't got a call in two days."

There was a moment of worrying silence. "No. Not yet. But they're not supposed to be back until tomorrow anyways. I'm sure they're fine."

"Okay. Bye," he said, ending the call and sighing. He'd really hoped Nat or someone had sent an update while he was at school. He knew he shouldn't worry, that it was standard on one of these stakeout ops for radio silence to last for days sometimes, but he really didn't like it. The sooner Tony got back, the better. Not to mention he hadn't even been able to train to distract himself since Cap and Bucky were away. His super strength made it too risky for him to train with anyone else.

He turned back to his friends and tossed his phone onto the table. "You guys can come over."

Ned smiled widely. "Awesome. Do we get to meet any of the Avengers?"

"Come on, I'm an Avenger, isn't that enough for you?" Peter asked, amused. He'd stopped fanboying over the Avengers a while ago. Ned, however, was still in complete awe over his best friend's incredible life.

"I mean, that is amazing, don't get me wrong. But meeting the Avengers would be a dream come true," he said with a faraway gaze.

Peter laughed. "Noted. I know what I'm doing for your birthday."

"Seriously?!" The superhero just laughed and began walking to his next class. Ned scrambled up and stumbled after him, yelling, "Peter! Answer me!"


	10. Chapter 10

Peter was regretting giving in to Ned and MJ. It seemed the disappearance of most of the Avengers hadn't gone unnoticed by the press, and now reporters were staked out in front of the school on the one day he would be bringing people over to his place, of course, because that was his kind of luck. He was positive they'd find some way to warp that into a story. Probably something about how he's in a secret relationship with a senior, leader of the decathlon team at his school no less, behind Tony's back or some other shit. He tried to avoid the tabloids as much as he could, but he was some of the biggest news around, being a teenage Avenger, which meant that it was impossible to stay entirely out of the news, unless he did another disappearing act.

"Okay, this is going to suck," Peter groaned to himself. Unfortunately, MJ and Ned had arrived just in time to hear him.

"Thanks, we feel so welcome," she said flatly, shouldering her bag and handing her books to Peter to carry. He took them without complaint. What had once seemed like heavy textbooks now seemed like large tissues, a fact MJ frequently took advantage of. They seemed practically weightless, especially since Steve had him lifting two hundred pound weights on average.

"That's not what I meant. I was talking about the reporters," he explained defensively.

She leveled a blank stare at him. "Sure. Let's go already. After the project, I need to work on some stupid college applications."

"Where is the Facility anyways? Is it like, underground or something?" Ned asked, clearly excited.

Peter sighed. "No. And its upstate. I don't actually know the address. I could give you coordinate points, if you'd like."

"You know the coordinates, but not the address? What the hell?"

"Yeah, my life's kind of weird," the superhero conceded with a shrug. Then he looked at them seriously, bracing a hand against the doors. "Stay close to me and do not talk until we're in the car."

He shoved open the doors. Men in suits who patrolled on campus all day held open the doors, quickly flanking Peter. He grabbed MJ and Ned, pulling them into the circle of security guards. They were closed in by reporters almost instantly. Peter walked towards his car calmly, slipping on sunglasses and pulling up his hood, as if this was a common occurrence. MJ was just severely uncomfortable, trapped between all the bodies and the flash of cameras coming from outside the circle. Ned was simply confused, but followed his best friend like always.

"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! Do you have anything to say about the unusual disappearance of Captain America, Iron Man, and multiple other Avengers?" one reporter cried, shoving her microphone towards Peter desperately. A guard quickly moved her away and Peter kept walking. It seemed like a mile to his dark blue sports car, even though it was right in front of the school.

MJ's ears were hurting from all the yelling and Ned was starting to understand why Peter hadn't wanted to reveal his identity by the time they reached the car. Guards already held the doors open for them. MJ ducked into the passenger seat, Ned into the back, and Peter slid easily into the driver's seat. All their bags and books were given to a guard who delivered them to the trunk. As soon as the doors were shut, the world became fifty times quieter.

"Does that happen everyday?" Ned blurted out.

"Not everyday," Peter said in a disinterested voice as he folded up his sunglasses and tossed them onto the dash. "They've calmed down a lot lately. But right now they want to know where the Avengers are. I don't know who let it slip, but somehow they found out everyone went on a mission. Stupid press."

MJ sighed. "That sucks."

"Well, there are some perks," Peter countered with a wry smile. "Karen, autopilot mode, please."

"Autopilot mode engaged," the feminine A.I. voice replied. Ned jumped and hit his head on the ceiling from surprise. "How was your day, Peter?"

"Eh. Anything from Tony?" he asked hopefully.

Karen's reply was apologetic. "Nothing from Mr. Stark. Mrs. Stark called though. She left a message. Would you like me to play it now?"

"No thanks. Text Pepper and tell her I'm on my way home. I'll talk to her then," Peter decided. It probably wasn't urgent because Pepper knew to text if it was. He could check his texts in class more often than his calls. Then he noticed Ned's look of awe. "Karen's my A.I. Tony may have gone overboard when he built this car."

"You have an A.I. just for your car?"

"No. She's also in my suits. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Pretty cool? Peter, that is straight up incredible! How could you not tell me about your personal artificially intelligent assistant?" Ned demanded, looking around the car as if trying to uncover all its hidden secrets.

Peter smiled. "Sorry. I'll show you some really cool stuff when we get there."

"You'd better if you're dragging us all the way out to the middle of nowhere," MJ warned him.

"Noted. I don't think you'll be disappointed."

"Woah!" Ned suddenly exclaimed from the back seat. He had somehow found the button that lowers one of the back seats to reveal a spare Spider-Man suit, complete with spare web cartridges, an extra parachute, and a replacement drone. He'd never actually used that one yet, though he knew Tony had put it there. Seeing the red and blue suit only intensified his longing to be on the mission with Tony though. "Ned, stop hitting buttons!" Peter said in exasperation. "What if that launched a missile or something?"

His best friend's eyes went wide. "Can your car do do that?"

"I don't know! I really wouldn't be surprised though, considering how overprotective Tony is. Just- don't hit any more buttons, please?" Peter begged. He really needed to ask Tony if there were any explosives or guns or something in his car. Why had this not occurred to him before? Especially considering this was the man who had put an instant kill mode in his suit.

"Yeah, no problem," Ned said, sliding a bit away from the button he had just been about to test out. "Getting arrested for launching a missile would really mess up my clean record, anyways."

"Here we are," Peter announced as he retook control of the car, steering them through a gate. Heavily armed guards waved to Peter as he drove slowly down a long driveway, practically a road, towards the largest building in the center. He swallowed as he saw the spot where the Quinjet was usually parked was unoccupied.

"This place is beautiful," MJ murmured, her fingers on the glass as if she could touch the image before her. Peter looked at her in surprise. He knew she was an artist, but she didn't usually voice thoughts like that. Though it appeared she hadn't even noticed that she'd said that aloud.

"I second that," Ned said, mouth open as his eyes greedily devoured the Facility. "I was expecting it to be a lot more military, you know, tanks and cannons. This looks like a mansion. A really, really nice mansion."

"Tony's a billionaire. He's used to a certain style of living. And there are tanks. But we kept those in the back with the jets," Peter explained, pulling up to the same spot Happy had when he brought Peter to the Facility for the first time.

Ned whipped towards his best friend. "You're kidding, right? I really cannot tell right now. Were you kidding?"

He laughed and opened his door. "Classified."

"Peter! Answer me!" Ned yelled, exiting the car too. He froze as he saw Pepper Stark and Bruce Banner waiting just inside. "Oh, my God. That's Dr. Banner. That's the Hulk."

"Yeah, maybe don't say that to his face," Peter suggested, grabbing his bag from the trunk.

MJ was still looking out at the perfectly manicured yard, interspersed with vibrant green and red leaved trees. Her fingers twitched as if grabbing a pencil that wasn't there. She only gave Bruce a cursory glance as Ned started freaking out. Not that Peter had expected her to fangirl over the Avengers. After all, she hadn't been too impressed by his reveal. A ton of superheroes she didn't know personally? Not worth her time.

"Peter!" Pepper exclaimed as they entered, smiling at her son. "You're home. And you brought friends."

"Yeah. Pep, Bruce, this is Ned and MJ," he introduced, gesturing to them in turn. Pepper smiled warmly at them. Bruce waved awkwardly.

"Hello," MJ said politely as Ned waved just as awkwardly as Bruce had.

"It's so nice to meet you," Pepper said to them, then frowned at Peter. "I was starting to think I'd never get to meet your friends."

"Stuff's been weird," he said defensively.

She stroked his hair. "I know. And no, no word from Tony or the others yet. We'll let you know if that changes." She turned back to Ned and MJ. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Actually, Bruce, could you bring them to my lab? I'll be there in a minute," Peter interjected.

The scientist looked surprised, but shrugged and stood. "Sure. Uh, right this way."

MJ and Ned followed him out of the room. Pepper tilted her head at him, managing a look that was both worried and curious. "What is it?" she asked.

"Why'd you call earlier? I never got a chance to check."

She pulled him into a half hug. "Because I wanted to make sure you're okay. I know Tony and I haven't been around for a few days. We don't like leaving you, you know."

He leaned his head on her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. We all have jobs, right? I understand. I'm glad you're here now though."

"Yeah. I'm here for a whole two weeks," she admitted. He looked up at her in shock. She laughed and cupped his face. "I had to move some meetings around, but I'm not going anywhere for a bit. I promise. We haven't had a lot of time together lately."

Wasn't that true. As CEO of Stark Industries, she had a lot of responsibilities. Her meetings often took her all over the world and sometimes took weeks. Pepper could usually only stay a day or two at a time, something Peter was used to. This would be the longest she had ever stayed since the start of summer. All for him, to be there for him while Tony was away.

He hugged her tightly. "Thank you."

"No problem, Peter," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him.

* * *

"What's all this stuff?" Ned asked, looking at a series of vials that were displayed on a shelf on the wall. They were all neatly lined up and labeled with Peter's familiar handwriting. They contained varying amounts of a white substance.

Peter looked over, still wearing safety glasses. "Oh, those are web prototypes. I'm working on making webs that can stick better to various surfaces."

"Awesome," Ned breathed out.

MJ looked over at him in exasperation. "Can we please finish this project before you start snooping around? Ten percent of our grade rests on this project."

"Right, sorry. This is just really cool. I mean, dude, you have your own lab. How expensive is some of this stuff?"

"Uh, I don't really know. Tony gave it all to me," Peter admitted.

Tony had given him everything, whatever he wanted. A lab, a car, multiple multi-million dollar suits, the latest Stark technology. There was no length he wouldn't go to to keep his son happy. Peter often tried not to think about it too much, but he knew he was being spoiled. He'd spent enough of his life living on May's average income to know that the wealth Tony had was incredible.

"It's not like they're toys, though. I need this stuff for Avengers work," he added.

"Why would you need a lab for Avengers stuff? You have superpowers, you don't have to build a suit like Iron Man."

Peter smiled and walked over to the only blank wall. "Funny you should bring that up. F.R.I.D.A.Y., open the wall panel, please."

"Yes, Peter," the A.I. replied. The wall parted, revealing the Iron Spider Suit behind it. Ned gasped audibly and even MJ was too dumbfounded to move for a second. Peter's look was almost adoring as he looked over his suit.

"Is that...is that…" Ned couldn't even finish as he stumbled closer.

"We're calling it the Iron Spider suit," he said proudly. "This is my official Avengers uniform. I haven't actually used it on a mission yet. My regular suit is high tech enough for most of the stuff I've done. Say there's another alien invasion or something…" He gestured at the suit with a pipette. "That is what I'll be wearing."

MJ stepped closer, her critical eye sweeping over it. "Have you tested it out? The metal would have to be incredibly well designed to enable your typical fighting style. You're not exactly as direct in your attack methods as Iron Man."

Peter had a delighted smile on his face as she said that. He'd kept his friends out of this side of his life for as long as he could, but maybe he shouldn't have. After all, they were just as smart as him. They could help him with his webs, with his suits. They'd stood by him through the craziness of his return to society, and he'd been slowly shoving them away in return. He'd promised Tony he would balance being Spider-Man and Peter Stark, but he hadn't really been doing that. He'd been suffering through his days at Midtown and fleeing to the Facility whenever he could. It was time to start fixing that.

"Tony thought of that," Peter assured her as all three of them drew closer to the suit. "We've been making tweaks to it based on my input from a few test runs…"

Pepper stood in the center of the living room, smiling as she stared at the TV. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was streaming the feed from the cameras in Peter's lab, enabling her to watch him show off his special suit to his friends. It was endearing how excited and invested Peter got in his projects. It reminded her of how Tony used to be, before the Ten Rings. When he stayed up late because he was immersed in a project, and not because he was trying to avoid another nightmare.

"What are you doing?"

Pepper whirled around, not having heard anyone join her. Wanda was walking towards her, playing with the sleeves of her long cardigan. The witch's hair was pulled into a messy bun and she had a soft smile on her lips. Pepper smiled and placed a hand on her chest.

"You startled me," the CEO said.

"Sorry," Wanda apologized, her pale eyes fixed on the screen. Pepper found her eyes somewhat unsettling. They were so pale and raw, when everything else about the girl was fire. "Are you spying on Peter?"

"Yeah," she admitted, folding her arms across her stomach. "Is that wrong?"

"No," the Avenger said simply. "It means you care about him. Though I wouldn't tell him. It would seem a little creepy."

"I should probably turn this off," Pepper fretted, reaching for the remote.

Wanda stopped her with a gentle touch. "Don't. They grow up fast, and you've already missed so much time."

Wasn't that true. Some days it felt like Peter was her and Tony's son. On other days it was as if she had barely scratched the surface on him. After all, he'd been her son officially for months now, but she had only met his best friends today. That wasn't exactly normal.

"Thank you, Wanda. Do you have much experience with kids?"

"Not really. But Pietro was a lot like Peter at that age. Passionate, energetic, impulsive," Wanda listed off with a wistful smile. "I like to watch him sometimes, too."


	11. Chapter 11

"No, you have to—" Wanda couldn't even finish her sentence she was laughing so hard.

"Have to what?" Peter asked, splattered in pancake batter after his disastrous attempt to use a mixer.

"Have to turn down the setting," she finished, reaching over and correcting his mistake. She smirked at him as he tried to brush the batter off his faded Captain America shirt.

She remembered a couple of weeks ago Tony had bought him a plethora of Iron Man stuff as a joke, so the next day Peter had marched downstairs wearing a Cap shirt. Tony had leaped up and demanded he change immediately. Steve and Pepper had been too busy laughing to say anything. Wanda smiled at the memory as she tossed him a dishrag.

"Thanks," Peter said with a roll of his eyes as he dabbed at his clothes.

"I take it you don't usually cook."

"No. May wasn't too good a cook herself, so she never taught me," Peter admitted with a shrug. "I usually just have take-out."

"Hey, where's that pancake mix? I have the griddle all fired up," Sam interrupted, spatula in hand.

Wanda sighed. "One minute. We had a bit of a mishap." Peter grinned innocently.

A phone rang. For a second, the heroes only listened as the unexpected chime seemed to fill the room. Sam reached into his pocket and answered as Wanda waited with an anxious expression. Peter listened in on the conversation, his enhanced hearing picking up on Steve's faint voice coming through the phone.

"Sam, we're on our way back now," Steve's voice said through the phone. He sounded strained. "Is Bruce there?"

"No, he's visiting some friends in the city. I'll call him. ETA?" Sam replied, well aware Peter was listening in. The kid wasn't as subtle as he was trying to be.

"Two hours. We need the Medbay prepped." Peter swallowed. Please, nobody be hurt, please, _please._

"I'll make sure it is. What happened?"

Steve didn't answer right away. His voice was extremely frustrated as he said, "They had some of those alien weapons. We didn't know about it. Tony took a bad hit—"

The whisk Peter was holding crumpled in his death grip. He couldn't hear what else Steve was saying, all he could hear was the echo of _Tony, Tony, Tony._ Of course it was Tony. He hadn't used his suit in months, he must have been out of shape, and distracted because now he had Peter to worry about. Peter's breath started to come a little too fast, the room seemed to be going out of focus.

"Peter, _breath,"_ Sam commanded, his voice sounding both far away and much too close all at once. " _Breath._ Come on."

He tried he really did, but panic was clawing its way through him. Was this all his fault? If he had gone, would Tony be hurt, maybe dying, right now? He should have tried harder, should have insisted. He knew something was wrong, something had to be wrong because Tony hadn't been calling him-

"Peter." Wanda's voice was softer, flowing over him. It sounded nice. He flinched just a second before her hand landed on his arm, but she didn't pull away. She rubbed his arm gently, and then her face came into focus, concerned, but calm. "Its okay. Just breath."

He took a shuddering breath, then worked on slowing his heart rate. Wanda and Sam waited patiently, her hand comforting as it rested on his arm. The small bit of contact was enough to ground himself. The kitchen came into focus again and he met Sam's eyes.

"Is—is Tony…" Goddammit, his voice was shaky and small. He didn't want any pity right now, he wanted to know if Tony was alright.

"They're flying him back right now," Sam said in the steady, calm voice he usually reserved for their therapy sessions. "We have the best medical equipment and doctors in the world. Tony will be fine."

It was that that unnerved him most. Sam never referred to Tony by his first name. He was always Stark, or Iron Man if he was feeling generous. Saying Tony meant things were serious. But Peter tried to focus on the reassurances Sam was offering. They'd dealt with injuries before, they could handle almost anything with all their resources. But not everything. Rhodey was proof of that, regardless of whatever tech Tony had made for his best friend to help him walk. Some injuries were simply beyond current science.

Peter struggled to ask his next question. "What injuries...what injuries does he have?"

Wanda looked concerned. "Peter, I don't know if you should know that."

"No," Sam disagreed, to both of their surprise. The Falcon just shrugged at their incredulous looks. "I know you, kid. If I don't tell you you'll just worry even more. Or poke around where you shouldn't."

"Worry about what?" Pepper asked as she walked into the room. Instead of her usual business attire, she wore a T-shirt and jeans, her strawberry blonde hair wet from the shower and pulled into a loose bun. Her cheerful smile faded as she took in the somber scene before her.

"...You may want to sit down," Wanda said with a wince.

* * *

He barely felt Pepper's gentle hand running through his hair, or the arm of the chair digging into his side. His eyes were closed, and he looked asleep with the way his head was resting on Pepper's shoulder, but that was just to minimize how much sensory input he was getting. It was easier to concentrate on his hearing if he didn't also have to be seeing everything. And all he wanted right now was to listen to the faint sound of Tony Stark's heart beating down the hall. Nothing mattered to the teen right now other than that heartbeat.

It had been hours since the Quinjet had landed and Bucky and Cap had raced Tony's limp body to the Medbay on a gurney. He had had to watch from the upstairs window since Pepper insisted that they'd only be in the way and they needed to let the doctors, Bruce among them, work. He was sure her argument made a lot of sense, but he had to bite down on every instinct he had not to just leap out the window and be by Tony's side.

Only after Pepper had forced him to choke down some food had she agreed to let him come wait outside the Medbay. Apparently, Bruce was the one who decided if Tony could have guests, and he hadn't left the room all day. Peter had greeted all the returning Avengers, but they could tell he didn't want to talk to any of them right now. He just wanted his father.

"Is he asleep?" Bruce asked quietly, as if trying not to disturb him. It seemed the doctor had forgotten he had enhanced hearing and he would be able to pick up on a simple tremor, even in his sleep. It was nice that he was being considerate though.

"No," Pepper responded at a regular volume. Peter could practically hear the wry smile in her tone. She knew her son too well to believe he'd fallen asleep at a time like this. "Can we see Tony now?"

"He's still unconscious, and he probably won't be up until tomorrow morning," Bruce said. Peter didn't move yet, though he was listening intently to the conversation. "But you're welcome to go in if you want."

Peter was up instantly, only stopped from running to Tony's side by Pepper's strong grip on his hand. She smiled at the scientist warmly, even as the teenager visibly fidgeted.

"Thank you, Bruce," she said gratefully.

"Of course. I'll let you two have some time to yourselves," he said, heading towards the living room where everyone else doubtless was.

Peter entered the Medbay first, practically bursting through the doors. He walked over quietly to Tony's bedside, his face pale. Tony would have looked peaceful, if it weren't for the multiple tubes and machines he was hooked up to. All his injuries were obscured under the standard blue gown patients were given, but it still made Peter feel sick to see his father like this. Pepper entered and wrapped an arm around his shoulder comfortingly. He leaned into her instinctively.

"He's going to be fine," Pepper whispered.

He shook his head minutely. Then he talked for the first time in hours, his voice barely audible. "I should have been there."

"No, baby. Don't blame yourself," she told him seriously. "This is not your fault. You couldn't have prevented this."

He didn't respond. Pepper was wrong, he could have stopped this, he could have been watching Tony's back, he could have done something. He should have pushed Tony harder to come on this mission, or asked Cap. He hadn't tried hard enough.

"Peter," she said sternly, turning his chin so that he had to meet her eyes. "Stop blaming yourself. It doesn't help anyone, and Tony wouldn't blame you either. He'd be glad that you were here, safe. Okay?"

"Okay," he repeated. He was sure he would agree with her later, when Tony wasn't lying unconscious in the Medbay. They were silent for a moment, only disturbed by the rhythm of the heart monitor. Then Peter said softly, "He really looks bad, doesn't he?"

* * *

"Peter... Peter, come on, buddy, you need to get up," Bruce urged, crouching beside the teen's chair. Peter didn't even look over at him.

"No, I'm going to stay here."

The doctor's brow furrowed. He tried again. "We're having breakfast right now. Some of your favorites. Why don't you join us?"

"I'm not hungry," he responded automatically.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Yesterday, when I force fed him a sandwich," Natasha said, appearing in the doorway with Steve.

She looked less than pleased at the state of the teenager. He was red eyed from staying up all night and pale. His hair looked messy and greasy. No one else had been able to get through to the teen. Pepper had had to leave unexpectedly for work yesterday afternoon, so the Avengers had been taking shifts sitting with Peter at Tony's bedside. Natasha was the only one who had no compunctions about forcing others to follow her orders though, especially when it was for their health. Steve was more there for moral support.

"Food time," she announced, walking over and pulling Peter out of his seat with her surprising strength.

"I'm fine," he protested, though he offered no resistance.

"No, you aren't. You haven't eaten or sleep in twenty-four hours," Steve said.

"That's an exaggeration!"

Natasha just shrugged and tugged him towards the door. "Too bad. Breakfast. Bruce already told you Tony won't wake up for a few more hours. You've already been up all night. Come on."

He still looked torn, but he allowed Nat to pull him out of the room. Steve did note that Peter looked back at Tony more than once. Steve didn't like seeing the billionaire like this any more than Peter, but he knew that he would pull through, especially with the access they had to the most advanced medical technology. It still amazed him how much the world had changed in just a few decades.

Steve looked at Nat and Peter's retreating figures, and hoped nothing else would change in Peter's brief life.

* * *

"I thought I told you not to mope," Tony said quietly, head turned to look at the teen slumped in the chair by his bedside.

Peter jerked, an excited smile stretching across his face. "You're up!"

"Up? How long have I been out?" he asked, sitting upright slowly. Bruce had taken out all the needles and unhooked the heart monitor last night when Tony's condition had stabilized. They had just been waiting for him to wake up.

"Since yesterday morning. It's about one now," Peter supplied, looking at the man anxiously. "How are you? Are you in any pain? Should I call Bruce? Oh! I need to let Pepper know." Peter reached for his phone, but in his eagerness ended up sending it crashing to the floor.

Tony smiled. "Slow down. I'm fine. And why isn't my wife crying at my bedside?"

"She had to go in to work," he explained, retrieving his phone sheepishly.

"How are the others? They didn't drop the mission, right?" Tony asked curiously, ruffling his short, dark hair. He frowned as he noticed the hospital gown.

"Oh, um, I didn't ask," the teen admitted.

Tony rolled his eyes. Of course not. From the look of things, Peter hadn't slept either, and most likely hadn't left the room. The kid nearly had as big attachment issues as he did, and he loved him for it. They fell apart in the same way, so Tony couldn't even be mad at him for it.

"Well, catch me up. We had to be on radio silence for a week," Tony said, gesturing for Peter to sit on his bed. He smiled and came over, leaning his back against the rail at Tony's feet as he caught his dad up on the past week.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'll be back in two days, three tops," Tony promised as Happy dragged the Iron Man suitcase down to the waiting limo. "You won't even notice I'm gone."

Peter frowned. "Yes, I will."

Tony sighed and looked over at the teen, who was walking on the wall of the living room. And was very deliberately not looking at him as he spoke. It wasn't like Tony wanted to go to D.C. to deal with more Accords business, but he had to. Peter either didn't understand that or was being stubborn. Probably the latter. Stubborn was the teenager's defining quality.

"Is this about last week? Because last week is over," Tony guessed, and it seemed he had been correct when Peter's shoulders automatically stiffened. He'd hit him right on the mark.

"Yeah, well, last week you nearly died, and I wasn't there, so, yeah, I don't want you to leave again," Peter blurted out, then clamped his mouth shut.

"Kid, I'm fine. Cradle stitched me right back up, not even a scar." He'd been able to rebuild Helen Cho's Cradle with Bruce's help, and it was frequently used by various Avengers. Since Peter seemed unmoved, Tony added, "And it's unlikely that the president is going to attack me with another alien gun, so I'd say I'll be safe."

It was true Tony had suffered no long lasting damage from last week's mission. Within an hour of waking up he'd been walking normally. Peter had kept a close eye on him, which had amused the others, but the teen hadn't spotted anything wrong with the billionaire. And it wasn't like Peter thought that a politician would attack Tony. But there were a hundred thousand other things that could happen, and Peter would be stuck in a classroom, unable to help, _again._ He hated not being able to do anything.

"I know," Peter said reluctantly, dropping to the floor.

"Good. Now you have to get to school, and I have a plane to catch."

Peter hugged him suddenly, startling the billionaire. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Maybe the day after," Tony warned him, a soft smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around the lithe boy.

"Tomorrow," he repeated sternly, not letting go.

His father couldn't help but laugh. "All right. Tomorrow."

They pulled apart. The last of Tony's luggage had been loaded and they were running out of reasons to stall. So Iron Man sighed and said, "Bye, Peter."

"Bye, Dad."

* * *

"Turn it _off,"_ Pepper hissed. Peter frowned, his ears picking up on the indistinct sound of a news reporter talking on the TV and what sounded like someone tripping, all with Pepper's voice in the background. "Turn the TV off."

He rounded the corner just in time to see the TV switch off and Steve set down the remote. Pepper turned around and smiled at him warmly, but Nat had been training him lately to tell when someone is lying or bluffing. Peter saw the way she tucked her hair behind her ear and went to straighten her immaculate skirt automatically. Those were tells that he'd been trained to recognize. She was nervous about something.

"Peter! Shouldn't you be getting to school?" she asked, a tad too brightly. Pepper was no spy.

"Forgot my math book," he said, gesturing towards the textbook lying on the counter without looking. "What was on the news?"

"What?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., turn the TV back on," Peter commanded, brushing past Pepper.

"Peter," he heard her say disappointedly. He kept walking, only stopping in front of the flat screen that was playing helicopter footage of the Avengers fighting a group of people in dark clothes with large guns. The guns were spitting out plasma blasts rather than bullets. Ultron technology. He easily spotted Tony flying above the battle in his bright red Iron Man suit.

"Son, I don't think you want to watch this," Steve said, looking worriedly at the teen.

But Peter was transfixed, his eyes glued to the screen. He watched every second of the clip. He didn't blink or look away as Iron Man failed to dodge a blast and plummeted to earth. The footage cut back to the newsroom just as War Machine caught Tony's limp figure. He watched the news anchor for a second as her lips moved but no sound came out. Pepper had muted the TV.

"How?" Peter asked quietly, looking to Steve.

The super-soldier sighed. "I don't know. There must have been a drone or security camera. Anyways, it looks like someone sold that video to the news corps and now this is all anyone can talk about. We'd actually managed to keep Tony's injury quiet, and now it gets out after the fact. We're getting a ton of calls, asking if he's alive."

Peter looked at Pepper and Steve incredulously. "What, were you just going to let me find out at school that this had gotten out? Let Ned tell me?"

"No, we were going to tell you," Pepper assured him, though he remained looking doubtful. "We just weren't going to show you the video."

"Did you think I wasn't going to see it if it's all over the news?" he demanded.

"We were hoping you wouldn't watch it. You shouldn't have to see that," Steve said gently, a pained look on his face.

"I think I have a right to watch it if I chose," he said stubbornly.

Pepper crossed her arms. "And I think that you still can't go a week without a nightmare and this video won't help that." Peter flinched a bit, and Pepper sighed. "We just didn't want to add that burden to you. We've all seen loved ones get hurt."

Peter turned away. He completely understood why they hadn't wanted him to see that, but it was his choice. And there was no way he could have ignored something like that. But he really was going to be late to school, and he didn't want to argue with Pepper and Steve right now. He knew he would regret it later. So he scooped up his textbook from the table and headed towards the elevator to the garage.

"I have to go. Bye," he said, not looking at them. The elevator doors closed before they could reply.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell us about what happened to Iron Man?" Ned asked quietly as he, Peter, and MJ walked down the halls. They received quite a few stares, but no one approached them—or Peter—for once. Not when, to the most of their knowledge, his adoptive father could be dead or dying right now. They had that much sensitivity, at least.

"Nothing to tell. Bruce had him healed up in a day. Sure, I was worried, but he's fine," Peter said absently. "He's doing so well Pepper sent him to D.C. to deal with politicians. The media's going crazy over nothing."

"It's not just the media," MJ pointed out, gesturing to the students around them. "Everyone cares about the Avengers. They're our literal heroes. So seeing one of them get shot down like that—" Peter flinched, "—well, it's unsettling."

"Exactly. Which is why we wanted to make sure you were okay," Ned finished.

Peter would normally be touched by their sentiment, but he was still upset from his argument with Pepper and Steve this morning, so he just said, "I'm fine. Let's go to class."

He didn't notice the worried look Ned and MJ exchanged as he walked faster down the halls.

* * *

The torture was never going to end, was it? Of course he had to be stuck sitting in front of two girls gossiping over the video. He could tell they were watching it on their phones under the desks without even turning around. Mr. Harrington was sitting at his desk and couldn't see their phones from there. Peter gritted his teeth and tried to ignore their conversation, but in the near silent room it was impossible for his sensitive ears not to hear what they were saying.

"That looked really bad," one said nervously.

"The Avengers said he's okay this morning," her friend replied. Pepper had no doubt cleared up the rumors very quickly.

"Yeah, but what if he'd been hit worse?" the first said, and Peter stiffened even further, his nails sinking into his palms. "He was so high up too. What if War Machine hadn't caught him? Honestly, we're lucky he recovered so well. That could have been really bad."

The room was going out of focus. Peter suddenly couldn't seem to catch his breath and he tilted noticeably in his seat. Ned looked over at him, alarmed. He hadn't seen his friend lose his balance in over a year. He could walk on ceilings and on walls like gravity didn't affect him.

"Peter? Are you okay?" Ned whispered, eyes darting between Mr. Harrington and Peter nervously.

No, no he wasn't. The room was caving in on him, just like Toomes' hideout. He could feel his heart rate accelerating. For a strange second, he knew he was panicking for no reason. He'd had panic attacks like this before. But in that moment all he knew was that he needed to not be in that room, where thirty people could see him at his most vulnerable.

"I have to go," Peter gasped out, jumping out of his desk and fleeing from the room, startled cries following him into the hall. The stark, white, harshly illuminated hallways burned his eyes. He spun wildly and fled to the closest empty room he could find. Locked. He crushed the door handle without trying and slammed the door behind him, bending the metal so that no one could get in.

He was trembling, his heart was beating too fast, and he felt like his senses, an eleven on a good day, had been cranked up to fifteen. He was intensely aware of the tag brushing against the back of his neck and his sleeves brushing around his wrists, every sensation making him want to jump out of his skin. He tried to slow his breathing the way Sam had taught him to do, but he couldn't. And no one was holding him right now, no one whose breath he could match to slow his own.

He found a corner and wedged himself in it. The room was nice and dark and empty, but he could hear through the walls and he couldn't breath and suddenly all he could hear was the steady tick of his watch, it was like a nail being hammered into skull, and it wouldn't go away-

He tore it off and threw it with all his strength. The watch shattered into a million pieces and fell discarded to the floor.

* * *

"It's so weird being here, isn't it?" Bucky asked, looking around the high school with equals amounts of interest and mild horror.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Sure brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Their eyes landed on the mural, and Dr. Erskine and Howard Stark's immortalized faces greeted them. Both smiled sadly as they looked at their old friends. It had been a long time, but they'd never forgotten. As much as they'd love to get lost in memories, they had come to the school for a reason. Peter's tracker had mysteriously winked out just a bit ago, and he hadn't answered anyone's calls when they tried to contact him.

"Yeah. I remember pulling you out of a lot of lockers," Bucky teased, turning around and walking down the hall, Steve following. The kids must have been in class, because the hallways were empty. It was somewhat unnerving, walking through the row of lockers without a person in sight. They were just glad no one had stopped them on their way in.

"Do we even know where we're going?" Bucky demanded as they ascended a staircase.

Steve pulled out his phone and pulled up what looked like a class schedule. "According to his schedule, which Tony gave me, he should be in history right now. I suppose we start there."

Bucky gave a low whistle. "Wow. Stark is really overprotective."

"Do you blame him? Peter has a tendency to find trouble," Cap said with a wry grin.

"Sounds like some other punk I know…" Bucky drawled. Steve grinned, but didn't deny the accusation. They reached the next floor, and Bucky immediately stopped and pointed at a door close to them. The metal handle was crushed, by what appeared to be a human hand from the indentations on it. That had to have been Peter. A boy and girl stood outside the door, a backpack on the floor between them. Steve frowned and approached them. The boy noticed him first, a look of relief spreading across his face.

"Oh, thank God," the boy said as the girl tilted her head curiously at them. "You're Captain America. It's an honor, sir."

"Ned, I'm guessing," Steve said, vaguely recalling a picture he'd seen of Peter and his friends. "And Michelle, right?"

"Yeah, that's us," Ned said, awed. "Wow, you know our names."

Bucky wasn't as happy as the teen. "Where's Peter?"

Michelle spoke up, pointing at the door with the crushed handle. "In there. He freaked out in the middle of class and went in there. Our teacher sent us to check up on him, but…" She trailed off with a shrug. Steve and Bucky understood though. The teens couldn't get in with the handle crushed like that.

"We'll take care of it," Steve assured her. "You two should go back to class. Is that Peter's bag?"

"Yeah. Here you go," Ned said, handing over the backpack. The two turned and left, shooting glances back at the pair, but soon slipped back into a classroom.

Steve stepped towards the door and said, "Peter? Are you in there? Can we come in?"

He knew Peter would be able to hear him. If the boy was still in there he had likely heard that entire conversation. And he had probably ignored Ned and MJ on purpose. Steve could only hope that Peter would let them in. If Peter really had freaked out in class then forcing their way into his room might make things worse.

Luckily, they heard a faint, "Yeah," emanate from within the room. Steve shoved the door open and entered the incredibly dark room. All the blinds were closed tight and the lights were off. As soon as Bucky was in Steve shut the door quickly.

His heart nearly broke as he saw Peter tucked tightly into a corner, pale and sweaty. The teen had his arms wrapped around his knees, and with his superior flexibility he was nearly a ball. Steve approached as quietly and slowly as he could, crouching down near the teen.

"What's wrong?" the super soldier asked softly.

Peter's voice was almost inaudible when he replied. "My senses are in override right now."

Oh. That was something Steve was familiar with. Hearing and seeing and tasting and smelling so much that you can't even process everything that's happening. He usually only got it in the midst of intense battle. Due to Peter's slight precognitive abilities it was even worse for him.

"Whenever you're ready we can take you home," Steve said, even quieter than before. He knew Peter could hear him.

The teen nodded in understanding, but stayed in a little ball. Bucky stayed near the door, probably listening for anyone in the hallway. Steve only waited patiently, knowing that it might take a while for Peter to move. There had been a few times over summer this had happened to Peter, and the only thing to be done was wait.

A few minutes later, Peter croaked, "Is that my bag?"

Bucky nodded and tossed it to Steve, who handed it to Peter. The teen carefully unzipped it and pulled out a set of headphones and sighed in relief.

"Soundproof," Peter explained. "Tony."

Steve smiled. Yep, that was just like Tony to make his son tech designed to help him. Next Peter pulled out a pair of sunglasses with an extremely dark tint. Too dark for most people to see through. All designed to help with sensory overload, something Peter often got.

Peter signed something with his hands. Bucky responded in kind as Steve watched the exchange. Natasha and Clint had been teaching the teen sign language at Peter's request for months, for situations just like these. Steve had never been one to pick up languages, but Bucky had a talent for it. Cap waited patiently as they finished whatever conversation they were having.

"Peter says the bell for next period will ring in a minute. All the kids will be in the hallways for about five minutes after that. He doesn't know if someone will be in this room next period or not," Bucky updated his best friend.

"Okay, so are we going now or waiting?" Steve asked. In his haste to get here, the super soldier had failed to think through on his plan to find Peter. Because he and Bucky were bound to be recognized, especially with Bucky's metal arm on full display. He knew Peter hated drawing attention to himself, but there didn't seem to be a way around that right now. It was incredible Steve and Bucky had even made it into the school without someone trying to stop them.

Bucky signed something to Peter, and the teen replied with a series of gestures. He turned back to Steve and said, "Peter wants to go now."

"Let's go then." Peter got up, looking so tiny, shoulders tensed and arms wrapped around himself. Bucky pulled open the door just as the bell rang. Students began filing into the hall. Steve carefully wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulder and the teen molded into his side. With Steve and Bucky's reassuring presence on either side of him, Peter stepped into the hall.

People instantly recognized the three Avengers. People shouted in excitement and pulled out phones, but they didn't stop for anyone. They simply pushed through the crowds, heading straight towards the parking lot. Peter seemed especially disorientated with two of his senses eliminated, clinging to Steve. The teen ducked his head down when they stepped outside, as the sun burned his eyes.

"Almost there," Steve promised, guiding the teen to the car he and Bucky had taken over. He let Peter into the back seat, where he collapsed and slipped off his headphones and sunglasses. Steve climbed in next to him and Bucky took the wheel. "Home now."

"Home," Peter agreed quietly.


	13. Chapter 13

"Are you sure you want to go to school today?" Pepper asked, sitting on Peter's bed and wringing her hands nervously. "Because you don't have to go. I can call the school—"

"No, no," Peter interjected, running a hand through his hair and sighing. "I can't just skip school even more than I already do. I had a panic attack, I know. But I talked to Sam and Tony, and we all agreed I should go back to school."

She still didn't looked pleased, but she said, "Okay. But I want you to call me if you want to come home. I'm serious, Peter. And try not to smash your tracker again. You really scared us."

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly. It had been a tad embarrassing to explain to Pepper, Steve, and Bucky that his tracker had gone out because he'd smashed it against a wall. It had been even more embarrassing to find out Tony had exact replicas of his tracker watch at the ready. As part of the Sokovia Accords he legally had to have a tracker on him at all times. He already had a brand new watch on his wrist.

"It's fine," she assured him, then smiled. "You're lucky Tony isn't here. He would've taken his Iron Man suit right over to your school."

Peter laughed. "Yeah, I got lucky." He stuffed his last notebook into his backpack and swung it over his shoulders. "I have to get going or I'll be late."

"Okay." She stood and placed a hand on his cheek. He leaned into her touch a little. "Have I mentioned how proud I am of you?"

"I know," he said, grinning and kissing the palm of her hand. "Bye, Pep. I'll see you tonight."

* * *

"Peter!" Ned called, smiling and waving as his best friend entered the room. Most of the class turned to look at the superhero. Peter didn't duck his head or look at anyone as he went straight to his seat next to Ned. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of embarrassing himself more than he already had.

"Hey, man," Peter said, sliding into his chair.

"Dude, what happened yesterday?" Ned asked quietly, but Peter knew that simply whispering wouldn't prevent his classmates from eavesdropping. All of them had seen him run out of class yesterday, and half the school had seen him leave with Captain America and the Winter Soldier. They all wanted the answer to Ned's question.

"Could we talk about this later?" he asked, looking over at the people who were trying to pretend that they weren't listening in.

Ned took the hint and sat back. "Yeah, of course. Sorry."

"It's fine. Later," Peter advised.

The bell rang and everyone took their seats as Mr. Harrington entered the room. Peter began pulling out his notebook and a pen to prepare for class. Then the phone sitting on Mr. Harrington's desk started to ring. The class chatted quietly as the teacher answered, but Peter listened intently, dread roiling in his stomach. His fears seemed to be confirmed as Mr. Harrington set down the phone and looked directly at him.

"Mr. Stark, they want you down in the office," Mr. Harrington said. The class murmured excitedly, but Peter just nodded and grabbed his stuff. He'd been both expecting this and hoping it wouldn't happen.

"See you later, Ned," he said, leaving the room.

When he reached the office the school counselor was waiting for him. He'd never actually meet the school counselor before. Even when he had been in need of therapy, Peter had turned to the Avengers, as he had doubted a high school counselor would really be able to help him with his situation. It wasn't like most counselors were taught how to help a teenage superhero with his PTSD and anxiety issues.

"Please take a seat, Peter," Mr. Johnson, the counselor, said, sitting himself down at his desk. Peter sat on the other side uncomfortably. Johnson's phony, serene smile was making him squirm. "Do you know why I wanted to meet with you today, Peter?"

The teen quirked an eyebrow. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess it has something to do with the fact that I ran out of class yesterday."

"Yes. According to your teacher and many of your classmates, you unexpectedly left class. Would you like to tell me why?" Johnson asked in a mellow tone that was supposed to make Peter feel like he could trust the man. Peter was having a lot of trouble stopping himself from just walking out. He already had Sam as a therapist, he didn't want to open up and discuss his many problems with some random stranger just because the school had deemed him in need of professional help.

"Look, I already have a therapist, so can I just go?" Peter asked, knowing it was futile.

"Could you please answer the question I asked you?"

He sighed. Fine, he'd play along. "I was having a panic attack. So I left the room."

"What do you think caused that?"

"Worry."

"Have you had panic attacks before?"

"Yes."

"And you said you have a therapist. Is that because of these episodes?"

"Yes." Peter's response was robotic. He sat stiffly with his arms crossed. This didn't seem to deter Mr. Johnson, however. If anything, the counselor looked even more interested.

"I know that you are a very unique student, Peter. As Spider-Man, I'm sure that you have found yourself in very dangerous situations. Do you think you've ever experienced a panic attack because you were in or have experienced danger?"

He didn't answer for a moment. Then, softly, he said, "Yes."

Johnson nodded like he'd already known the answer. "Do the Avengers know that you've had a panic attack in a dangerous situation?"

"Yes."

"And yet they still have you participating in their ranks? Do you think that's what's best for you?"

Peter frowned at the counselor. "Of course it is. It's my choice. They trust that I will be honest with them if I don't feel up to an assignment. They don't pressure me into doing this."

"Okay. But I really want you to think about this, Peter," Mr. Johnson said seriously. "If being an Avenger is causing you to have panic attacks, then you need to consider if it's worth it. We all want you to be safe and take care of yourself. If there's anything that I or your teachers can do to help you, let us know."

Peter squirmed in his seat. "Yeah, I'll do that. Can I go?"

"One last thing," he promised. Peter sighed and waited. "Can you tell me who your therapist is? I just want to be sure you're getting the right help."

"Oh. It's Sam Wilson," he supplied. This caused Johnson to look rather skeptical. "What?"

"The Falcon?" Johnson clarified. Peter nodded. "He may not be an objective when it comes to your decisions regarding the Avengers, being an Avenger himself. You may want to consider seeing someone else who is less involved in your situation."

Peter stood up. "Goodbye, Mr. Johnson. I'm going back to class."

"Alright. That's fine. Please think about this talk though. Have a good day," he said with a smile.

Peter stalked out of the room and into the hall, where he sank against a wall and cursed. Now he was pissed off. Mr. Johnson didn't understand, he didn't know what he was talking about. The Avengers were his family, they had tried talking him out of doing missions. With an aggravated sigh, Peter left the school and hopped into his car. Karen greeted him like always.

"Hello, Peter. How was school?" she asked in her chipper voice.

"Not great. Call Pepper, please," he requested, rubbing his temples. She answered almost instantly.

"Peter? Is everything alright?" Pepper asked anxiously.

"I'm fine. I'm coming home now. I'll tell you about it when I get there," he promised her.

"Okay. See you soon." The line clicked dead and silence filled the car.

* * *

"Hey, Pepper, I'm back!" Tony yelled, walking out of the elevator. "God, you are not going to believe how much I pissed off the reps." He sounded very pleased about this. Then he rounded the corner and saw Peter and Pepper sitting together on the couch, even though it was only one in the afternoon. "What did I miss?"

"Come see," she said, gesturing to the flat screen which was playing a news report. He walked over and stared at the screen with a frown.

 _"News began spreading on social media yesterday that Peter Stark, better known as Spider-Man, experienced what experts believe was a panic attack while in class at Midtown School of Science and Technology,"_ the news anchor was saying. The screen displayed posts from Peter's classmates and pictures of Steve and Bucky walking him out of school. _"Many of his classmates report that Stark abruptly left class and locked himself in a nearby empty classroom. Stark did not leave the room until Captain America and the Winter Soldier, two other members of the Avengers, came, and excused him from school. In statements from Stark's classmates, this kind of behavior is somewhat typical from the teenage Avenger. Attendance records indicate that Stark often leaves class unexpectedly, but witnesses say this time was different."_

Suddenly the screen was displaying Mr. Johnson talking to a news anchor in front of the school. _"Do you believe that Peter Stark suffered from a panic attack in class yesterday morning?"_

 _"Yes,"_ Mr. Johnson replied and Peter folded his arms. So much for patient confidentiality. _"Considering Mr. Stark's membership in the Avengers, it's highly likely that the job is having adverse effects on his mental state. He's been in types of danger that men twice his age can't imagine. I think it's entirely reasonable to say that those experiences could have caused him to have some type of panic attack."_

It switched back to the news reporter. _"Now many people are taking to social media to protest the membership of Spider-Man in the Avengers. They believe that Stark is too young to handle the immense pressure and danger associated with the job. Some are even claiming that Stark is being used as a child soldier and using his months of silence towards reporters as evidence that he is being forced to work for the Avenge—"_

Pepper put it on mute. For a second there was no sound as the family stared at the screen. Peter was especially statue-like, for once not fidgeting. Tony swore and raked a hand through his hair, turning to his wife.

"How bad?" he asked.

She frowned at Peter in concern but he didn't even notice. "It's not looking good. Opponents to the Avengers and the revised Sokovia Accords are being especially vocal. Human rights groups are also voicing discontent. Because we adopted Peter and inaugurated in him into the Avengers in the same month, a lot of people are saying we're only using him for his abilities."

"Fantastic," Tony groaned.

"Tony. They are some groups that are claiming that you and Bruce are the ones who gave Peter his abilities."

He looked at his wife in shock. "What? We're still not even sure how a spider bite gave him superpowers. Much less how to actually create a superpower giving spider."

"I know, but given both yours and Bruce's history with illegal experimentation—"

"To be fair, there wasn't any laws against creating A.I.s at the time."

"Regardless," she continued, "this isn't going to blow over easily."

"I'm sorry," Peter said in a small voice, forehead resting on his knees. He wouldn't meet their eyes.

Tony knelt in front of his son. "Peter. This is not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for. And we'll deal with this."

"I need to make some calls," Pepper said when it was clear Tony wasn't getting a response.

She gave her husband a look that clearly said, _s_ _tay with Peter_. He nodded, and Pepper left the room, phone already in hand. Peter didn't even look up. Tony sighed and sat next to the teen. Everything was falling apart, and his phone was probably blowing up with calls from D.C. right now, but his son came first. Anyways, Tony thought he was getting pretty good at dealing with emotions. At least, Peter's emotions.

"Come on, talk to me," the billionaire urged, jostling the teen lightly.

"What's going to happen?" Peter asked quietly.

Tony sighed. "I don't know yet. It depends how seriously the government takes this. We're going to have to do a lot of interviews, that's for sure. We might have to testify in front of Congress, maybe the U.N."

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"Why do you keep saying that? This isn't your fault," Tony said, frowning. "Peter, come on. Look at me."

"It is my fault," Peter said, lifting his head and turning towards Tony. "I keep messing up and you keep having to clean up my mess, and I'm sorry. I don't want to make things harder for you."

"You have this all wrong," Tony said, heart breaking for the boy who still felt the need to save everyone before himself. "Mess up as much as you want. You're a teenager. Now is the time to screw around. And you're a good kid. You don't get into half as much shit as I did. And if you do mess up, Pepper and I will be there. Hell, all of us will be there. But, Peter? You did nothing wrong this time. You had a panic attack. I've had those."

"You have?" The surprise was obvious in his voice.

Tony laughed humorlessly and nodded. "Oh, yeah, I have. They suck. But over time, and with help, they can go away. Over time," he repeated. "So, not your fault."

Peter stared at him with wide eyes for a second, before throwing his arms around Tony. "Thanks, Dad," he whispered.

Tony smiled and wrapped his arms around the boy. "Course, kid."

"Mr. Stark?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. said. Tony frowned and released Peter. "Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross is calling you, sir."

"I should take this," Tony admitted, getting up. "It's going to be a long night."


	14. Chapter 14

Peter's phone rang again, and the screen turned on, displaying fifty missed messages and ten missed calls. Steve raised an eyebrow at the teen as he didn't so much as look over at the device he was usually glued to. He just continued to practice, contorting his body midair as he jumped off the many pillars and perches Tony had installed in the training room. He'd been at it for a while now, but showed no signs of stopping yet.

"Hey, Pete, your phone rang," Steve called out, even though he knew that Peter's enhanced hearing had picked up on the little chime.

"Okay," the teen grunted, landing on a wall a little harder than he had intended to. He crawled up the vertical surface until he reached a perch, from which he jumped off of, using his webs to swing across the room.

"Shouldn't you answer it?" Steve pressed.

"I'll answer them later," he replied shortly, springing off a pillar and landing in a crouch on the floor.

The super-soldier raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you avoiding your friends?"

"Yes," Peter said stiffly. Steve was too surprised to respond. Peter wasn't usually that easy to get answer out of. He tended to dance around the question, much like Tony. Peter stood and stretched. "I'm going to go—"

"Wait a second," Steve said and the teen froze in place. "Why? Your friends are clearly worried about you—"

"Exactly!"

Peter's shout echoed through the room. The both stood facing each other, neither taking so much as a step or shifting their weight. Steve looked stunned. After all, Peter didn't usually raise his voice. Especially at him. And Peter looked kind of drained after his shout. He was pale, and dark rings circled his eyes. His hands raked through his hair helplessly. His voice was much quieter, but just as exasperated and harsh as he kept talking.

"God, everyone's worried about me! May, Tony, Pepper, Sam, Bruce, MJ, Ned! And now the whole goddamn country is trying to get me into therapy, and I'm trying, I'm trying really fucking hard to get better, but no one seems to see that—" He cut off, sharply turning away, his shoulder hunched protectively. He looked so small in the cavernous room, arms wrapped around himself. "I don't know what to do," he whispered.

"We worry because we care about you," Steve said, standing beside the teen.

"I know—" Peter began to say tiredly.

"I'm not sure you do," he interrupted softly. "All of us have lost so much, Peter. We've done a lot of good, we've done a lot of bad. But we all did it for the same reason. For you. For the next generation. So you could grow up in a safer world. We feel like we failed you. You should never have got superpowers, you should never have had to fight with us, you should never have woken up screaming from a nightmare. But you did. Our fault. That's not the worst part though. The worst part is not knowing how to help you. We can barely take care of ourselves."

Steve hated being helpless. He'd rarely ever felt terror as pure and consuming as when he had checked Peter's pulse after he'd fallen from that rooftop and felt nothing. No pulse, no breath, no heartbeat. He didn't know what he would have done if the CPR hadn't worked. And now he felt like he was watching Peter drown, but he couldn't pull him out.

"I don't mean to scare you guys," Peter whispered.

Steve nearly smiled. "You're too nice, son. But if you want to help us out, maybe you should let your friends know you're okay."

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I will."

"Good. Go get something to eat while you're at it. You just had quite the workout."

* * *

"Ned and Michelle are here, Peter," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said suddenly. Peter frowned, spoon falling into his cereal.

"What? Are you sure?" Peter asked, confused. It was a school day. Did they ditch? And neither one had a license. How did they even get up here?

"Yes, I'm sure," she replied in a tone that could only be described as insulted. Tony gave his A.I.s too much personality.

"Let them in, I guess," Peter said, hopping off his stool.

"Shouldn't they be at school?" Pepper asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Apparently they're ditching now," Peter said in exasperation. She just smiled and cleaned up his meal. Peter gave his cereal a wistful look. He was really hungry from his workout this morning, and he'd hardly got anything down yet. But someone needed to deal with his friends.

He rode the elevator down to the lobby and stepped out. Interns and employees were hurrying about to get their important work done. A few waved to Peter, mostly scientists he'd met in the labs, but they hurried away before he could greet them. Everyone was always so busy around here. A big project must be going on right now though, because this was an unusual amount of people for so early in the morning. He'd ask Tony later, if he remembered. He quickly spotted Ned and MJ waiting awkwardly by the front doors, watching the organized chaos with some amount of fascination.

"What are you two doing here? Are you seriously ditching class right now?" Peter hissed at them.

MJ crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed look. "Hello to you, too, loser."

"MJ!" Ned groaned.

"Oh, he can handle it," she snapped back. Peter wanted to groan. It seemed Ned was in the group that believed he was a fragile little baby who mustn't be upset.

"Let's go somewhere more private," he said, shepherding them towards the elevator. His hand was scanned on a panel and then F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, "To the suite, Peter?"

The superhero looked wary. "Who's up there?"

"Ms. Stark, Captain Rogers, and Sgt. Barnes."

He tilted his head back and forth, considering. Tony wasn't there, which was good, because Tony tended to overreact or interrupt. But Steve and Bucky had super hearing, which was not good. Especially since both of them were kind of nosy, not that they would ever admit that.

"Is my lab empty?" Peter tried.

"Yes. Going to your lab," F.R.I.D.A.Y. answered and the elevator started moving.

"Thanks," Peter said automatically and leaned heavily against the wall. His friends eyed him in concern.

"Are you okay?" Ned asked anxiously.

"Just tired. I may have pushed myself too hard on my workout this morning," he replied, rubbing his shoulder ruefully. He'd nearly dislocated it on a bad web swing.

"You already worked out? It's not even eight yet," Ned said.

"We keep weird schedules around here." He didn't expand on that statement. Anyways, he had questions for his friends too. "Like you two apparently. Why aren't you at school?"

MJ raised an eyebrow. "I think the better question is why aren't you at school?" she retorted.

"Because I've been brainwashed into serving the Avengers as part of a government plot, or haven't you been watching the news?" he said flatly, sarcasm dripping from his words.

The elevator doors opened, admitting the group into Peter's lab. His Iron Spider suit was laying on a worktable, multiple panels open on it, exposing the wiring beneath. Tools and screens hooked up to the suit were scattered across the table. Alt rock music was pouring out of speakers that Ned looked around for, but couldn't see. Peter turned off the music with a simple voice command.

"Seriously, dude, are you okay?" Ned asked.

Peter laughed bitterly. "I'm great. The government is going to be interrogating me to see if I've been forced to join the Avengers, but just another day, right?"

Ned looked even more worried now. Peter fiddled with a screen rather than look at his friends. MJ was having none of that, though. She pulled the screen away from him.

"How long have you been having panic attacks?" she asked bluntly. Ned made exaggerated abort signs, clearly thinking that she was being to forward with him.

"It's fine, Ned," Peter assured him. He fell silent for a moment as his friends watched him expectantly. They jumped as he chucked a screwdriver at the wall where it got lodged three inches deep in the paneling. Peter rarely exhibited his super strength. Sure, they knew he had it, but he was much more careful with his strength than his wall crawling. Peter sighed, then met MJ's eyes. "I've been getting panic attacks since the beginning of summer. I had one in the middle of a mission. That's why I got stabbed and couldn't break my fall. I freaked out, completely lost it. And I died. Steve saved me, but I died."

"How many since?" she asked, voice uncharacteristically soft. Peter slumped against the edge of his worktable.

"I haven't counted them. Two dozen, maybe more," he answered mechanically.

"Two...dozen?" Ned asked in horror.

"Who knows about these?" MJ continued in a gentle voice.

"The Avengers, May, and Pepper." Peter looked uncomfortable. "Can we not talk about this?"

That had been the wrong thing to say. Ned backed up slightly as a dangerous glint entered MJ's eyes. Peter looked regretful as soon as he saw her face. She'd had a lecture ready for him for months, and he had just given her the perfect opportunity to perform.

"You have been lying to us and avoiding us for months, Peter!" she said furiously, and it stung him more than if she had been yelling at him. The quieter her voice, the sharper it cut. "This week's just one example! We understand that you're Spider-Man, and shit happens, but how do you think we feel when we hear the Avengers are fighting halfway around the world and you don't let us know you're okay until you show up to school! Or sometimes you stay home for days and ignore our texts. What do you think we imagine happened to you, Peter? Every damn time I don't hear from you I assume you're dead! And now we're just finding out that you have a panic disorder, which, by the way, the whole damn world knows! We could have helped you! Instead you shut us out!"

She took a deep breath. "So," she said in a steady voice, but there was a no nonsense tone to it, "you need to start talking to us, Peter, because we can't keep doing this."

Peter nodded slowly. "That's...fair." He eyed MJ apprehensively, not sure if she would start tearing into him again or not. but she just leaned against the wall and waited. Ned hadn't said anything, but Peter could tell he was on MJ's side. If he had to guess, he would say they'd talked about this a lot together in the last couple of months.

"Homecoming started everything," he opened up with, playing with his sleeves nervously. "I started being anxious all the time, and there were these nightmares...I wasn't sleeping, and my grades were dropping and I was a wreck. That's when May went to Tony for help. I started spending the weekends up here. It helped, being with people who understood what I was going through."

"I didn't even notice," Ned whispered, ashamed.

"To be fair, I was trying to hide it from you," Peter assured him. "Anyways, that arrangement lasted for months. Then I had my first panic attack during that fight on the roof. When I woke up the next day, I couldn't even walk near a window because reporters were camped outside. Everyone suddenly knew who I was. I started getting death threats, May started getting death threats. I went numb. Tony had to force me out of bed to eat. It... _I_ wasn't okay."

He broke off and his eyes unfocused. MJ and Ned were stunned. Peter was a much better actor than they had believed. They'd had no clue he'd gone through any of this. They'd assumed he'd spent his summer getting to know the Avengers. He'd always skimmed the details of the two months he'd dropped off the face of the earth. MJ was particularly upset at herself for not noticing sooner. It had take Peter's panic attack in the middle of class for her to realize how severely messed up he was.

"Tony started having me talk to Sam. He'd worked with war veterans before. I started getting better. By the end of the summer, I was sleeping through the night, mostly. That was enough to convince Tony to let me go to school."

"And lately?" MJ asked, subtly pressing him to continue, but gently enough that he knew he didn't have to answer her and it wouldn't upset him.

Peter shrugged. "Mostly good. I dropped decathlon to lessen my stress and I have a little therapy session with Sam at least once a week. My panic attack on Monday wasn't normal. I hadn't had one in weeks prior to it. But with Tony getting hurt last week, my nerves were running kind of high and I panicked. But I really am fine, you guys. I'm getting help and all that stuff."

"God, Peter, why didn't you tell us?"

"I thought I was getting better," he explained with a sigh. "I thought they would go away, for good. I didn't want to worry you for no reason."

"Well, you failed there, dude," Ned told him, and both boys cracked a grin. "What happens now? With the press and stuff, I mean."

Peter shrugged. "I don't know. Tony and Pepper are trying to run damage control, but we're not sure how to smooth this over. Even if the U.N. decides that I am not being brainwashed or coerced, the press will probably keep running articles on the state of my mental health. It could reflect badly on the Avengers. And the last time people hated the Avengers, they broke up for nearly a year. Anyways, I probably won't be back at school for a while, if ever."

"What are you talking about?" MJ asked, frowning at him.

"With how many absences I've been racking up, they're probably going to hold me back a year. I'd rather skip straight to college if that's the case. We'll see though."

"We'll still come bother you," MJ promised as Ned nodded along with her. "You're a loser, but you're still our loser."

"Thanks, guys."

* * *

"Hello, May," Tony said as pleasantly as he could. He'd been on the phone all day. He hadn't even seen Peter since last night. But he needed to make this one last call. Probably should have made it a while ago. Maybe not. He was too tired to really think about it right now. He hadn't sleep in over a day. Only coffee and determination was keeping him going at this point.

"Stark," she replied, somewhat coldly.

He winced. That was not a good start to this chat. "I'm sensing that the news spread to Hawaii, then."

"You think?" Sarcasm dripped like acid from her tone. "I thought you said that he hadn't had a panic attack in awhile."

Tony sighed, spinning a pen between his fingers. "He hadn't. Nightmares and whatever, but no panic attacks. Sam thinks this was an isolated incident."

"Well, it's all over the national news now. What are you going to do? How's Peter?"

"Peter's...upset. But okay. And as for what I'm doing, that's why I called. There's going to be a plane waiting for you in a couple hours. Let's say eight. That should get you here by tomorrow."

May was clearly surprised by these plans. "What? If anything, shouldn't Peter be joining me out here? The press knows where the Facility is, they'll just stake out front."

"You and Peter won't be staying in the Facility," Tony said flatly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Parker." He hung up before she could respond.


	15. Chapter 15

"May!" Peter yelled, running forward as his aunt stepped out of the plane. She shielded her eyes from the sun, and as she spotted her nephew a wide smile spread across her face. He jumped up the stairs to get to her faster, surprising May. He was usually more covert with his powers. But then she remembered that there was no need for him to be covert at the Avengers Facility. Wacky shit happened there all the time.

"Peter!" she replied, throwing her arms around him. He clung to her tightly, trembling a little, breathing in her familiar scent. She smelled like home, like their little apartment in Queens and his childhood. He hadn't seen her like this, face-to-face, in months. "I've missed you so much!"

"So have I. Tony didn't tell me you were coming until an hour ago."

She slung her arm around his shoulders, and realized he'd grown an inch since she'd left. It wasn't quite as easy to reach his shoulder. And his hair had grown out. It was curly again, just like it had been for most of his childhood. Now it didn't make him look younger though, which was why he'd cut it shorter in the first place. Now it made him look...hot. That was a word she'd never thought she'd apply to her nerdy nephew, Spider-Man or not.

"I didn't know till last night myself," she told him as they walked down the steps. A golf cart was waiting to drive them the short distance to the main building, the Avenger's residence. A few men were already loading her luggage into another golf cart near the back of the plane.

"I'm glad you're here," Peter admitted. "With... everything going on."

"Yeah. You're stuck in quite the mess this time, aren't you?" May half-teased, smirking a bit sarcastically.

"Sorry?" he said like it was a question, wincing.

She kissed his head. "Don't be. This isn't your fault. And Stark and I will deal with this. You want us to get along, right?"

"Right," Peter parroted, but he looked more troubled than reassured by her words. She instantly noticed his odd reaction and frowned in concern.

"What's wrong, honey?"

He hesitated, before saying, "Let's talk about it later. Please?"

"Sure," she readily agreed. He looked tired, probably from stress keeping him awake all night. No need to add onto that. "Catch me up on other stuff. How's Avenger-ing going?"

* * *

They had all gathered in the living room. All the Avengers, Pepper, and May had seated themselves in a ring around a few coffee tables, occupying couches, chairs, and footrests. Clint had even come from his farm, even though he was officially retired, not that that stopped him from joining in a battle or two once in a while, much to Laura's exasperation. Peter sat between Pepper and May, as the two women had none of the animosity that existed between Tony and May. And as for his father, Tony was sitting in a chair on Pepper's other side, holographic displays showing the latest news feeds relating to Peter and multiple transcripts of calls and emails from various governments.

"We're getting called in by the US government, the U.N., the Sokovia Accords panel, a ton of agencies that I've never even heard of, etc., etc.," Tony listed off, flicking through his screens as F.R.I.D.A.Y. spooled up more information. "Basically, everyone. Everyone hates us."

"It's not like that's new," Clint pointed up, Natasha nodding along beside him.

"Yes, but they have the Raft now," Wanda said, a somewhat haunted look in her eyes. "They fear us. They'll take any chance they have to contain us."

"You'll never be back there," Vision assured her, placing a hand over hers. She smiled at the android in thanks, but no one else offered any assurances. They didn't want to make promises they couldn't keep.

"Then I guess we go in for questioning," Steve said. He didn't seem very pleased with the idea, but after the Avenger Civil War, as it had been dubbed by the media, none of them wanted to defy the world powers again. They hadn't even been back together a full year yet.

"This is crazy," Sam complained. "How are we supposed to prove we didn't magically brainwash the kid, or whatever it is that they think we did?"

Pepper rubbed Peter's arm reassuringly, but the teen hardly seemed to be paying attention to the conversation. No one even noticed him, even as they discussed what to do about his situation. They were all too wrapped up in their own thoughts and ideas. Especially Tony. The billionaire was sorting through piles of messages and news cites, all while simultaneously adding in to the discussion. As the original signer of the Sokovia Accords, all of the messages were getting sent to him, even though Steve had been reinstated as the head of the Avengers.

"I'm not sure, Sam," Steve admitted. Even Bucky looked startled by that confession.

"It doesn't help that we have Wanda," Natasha added. "They documented her powers, and have our reports of our first encounters with her. They know she has the ability to brainwash Peter—" the spy snuck a glance over at the witch, who looked a bit pained "—not that you would or did. But it's something they'll use against us."

"Exactly. So what do we do?" Sam said, looking at Steve and Tony.

Steve didn't answer. Tony didn't look over at his team as he said, "I'm sending the kid away until this blows over. We'll deal with this ourselves."

Multiple people began to let out exclamations, both in favor of the statement, in surprise, and against it. But they all fell silent when a small voice cut through the room.

"No."

Everyone turned to look at Peter. The teen's vacant-eyed stare had been replaced with determination as he looked directly at his father. Tony raised his eyebrow at his son, clearly not having anticipated resistance.

"Excuse me?" Tony asked, pretending he had misheard.

"I'm not going to go into hiding while you take care of everything for me," Peter said calmly, even as everyone else could see Tony's blood pressure rising. "I'm an Avenger, just like you. I'm staying."

"No, you're not," Tony retorted. "They're going to try to villainize us, they want to turn the public against us, again. We're too powerful and independent, even with the Sokovia Accords. They're just using you as the convenient excuse to do that. I don't want you caught in the middle. If all our asses get tossed into the Raft, I want you across the globe. And if we go scot-free, then you had yourself a nice vacation and we can all go back to normal."

"That's your plan? Really? You think I'd be okay with this? With all of you risking yourselves while I'm free and clear?" Peter said in disbelief.

"I wasn't really going to ask your opinion. Still haven't, actually."

"Tony," Steve interrupted. The billionaire looked over at him in annoyance. Steve had a resigned look on his face, clearly in favor of Tony's plan, but he still said, "It should be Peter's choice."

"A second ago you were fine with my plan," Tony snapped at him.

"Well, a second ago it didn't include sending Peter into hiding against his will." Steve's expression was hard. Peter could tell that Cap wouldn't bend on this. Steve had had too many doors closed in his face, too many decisions made for him, to in good conscious do the same to Peter. "He gets to choose."

"Thank you," Peter said to Cap, pointedly looking at Tony. His father didn't even flinch or look remorseful. Not that Peter expected or wanted him to. He knew Tony was trying to protect him, just like he had always done. But Peter was sick of needing protection. He was sick of waking up screaming, of hiding from paparazzi, of pretending that nothing had changed.

Because his whole world had changed. Everyone knew he was Spider-Man. He was an Avenger. He was the son of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Sometimes he had to fly across the globe for a U.N. sanctioned mission and bring his chemistry homework along for the flight. It was weird, and it took a lot of energy, but it was his life, and he needed to do something about it. No more placating the press and trying to act normal. When the world changes, you have to change with it.

"Peter, I agree with Stark," May said, and even the billionaire blinked in surprise. She placed a hand over Peter's. "This is only going to get worse before it gets better. I don't want you mixed up in all this. I don't trust any of the people who now want to run tests on you."

He looked down for a second. As part of joining the Avengers, Peter had been required to go through a series of tests, medically, mentally, and physically, to give the U.N. information on his abilities. Tony had been able to convince the U.N. to let him run the tests on Peter himself and then hand over the information afterwards. Tony hadn't trusted them to get anywhere near Peter then either. He still didn't. But Peter knew what running would mean.

"If I go into hiding I break the Sokovia Accords," Peter said softly. "It won't matter if the rest of you are locked up or not. When I signed, it was with the provision that I keep a tracker on me at all times. If I run, I have to turn off that tracker. Doesn't that seem super suspicious?"

"I don't care. I want you to stay out of this," Tony said, frowning, but Peter could see that he had everyone else's attention.

"It sucks, what's happening. But we should use it," he continued.

Rhodey leaned forward. He'd spent enough time around Tony to recognize that Peter had an idea. A big one. "I know that look. What are you planning?"

Everyone looked at Rhodey in surprise. They had expected him to side with Tony, like he often did. But the colonel was waiting for Peter's answer. They could practically see the gears turning in his head. The only one who didn't look interested was Tony.

"What if we do the publicity for this?" Peter asked, looking around at the blank faces. He plowed onward. "Over summer we tried radio silence. It just landed us in this mess. And after Sokovia and Lagos, the Avengers went silent. So the news channels took over the story and twisted it to fit their narrative, which led to the Sokovia Accords. That isn't working. So let's tell the story ourselves. Go on every talk show, news channel, late night comedy there is. People want to watch their heroes. Let's tell them our version of the story. Get the public on our side."

"That's a pretty ballsy plan, kid," Sam said, leaning back and grinning. "I like it. And the camera loves me."

"It might not work," Natasha said, stating the facts.

"But it's better than going without a fight," Bucky said, a quiet anger in his voice.

"I believe that Peter's idea may give us an advantage in our hearings with the U.N.," Vision said, "but it will most likely only succeed if Peter himself is at the center of all the press."

"No," Tony and May said instantly.

Pepper bit her lip, and looked over at her husband. "Vision's right, Tony. It's how press works. They're using Peter as the excuse to investigate the Avengers. If Peter's on every major newspaper and talk show saying that the Avengers are completely innocent of any and all crimes, it will be ten times more convincing than you or Steve saying it."

Peter had to fight to keep a triumphant grin off his face. If Pepper and Rhodey were on his side, Tony was bound to cave soon, though not easily. Pepper was a businesswoman. She'd been putting spins of Tony's antics for many, many years. Rhodey had also had years of experience coming up with excuses for Tony's behavior. Both of them knew how to work a crowd. And Vision had no doubt done the calculations in his head. But that left another problem.

Peter really, truly hated press.

It had been a bit easier when no one knew he was Spider-Man. He could do whatever he wanted with no consequence on his everyday life. That was no longer the case. The only true press he'd done since his reveal was that press conference. Otherwise he dodged them as best he could. For the Avengers though...for his strange, superhero family who had helped him when he needed it most and had stayed with him ever since, he would do it.

"I'll do whatever I have to do," Peter said.

"Fine. I'll play along. Let's do this," Tony said flippantly, but Peter saw through it. He still liked his plan better, but he would try to help Peter. The teen gave his father an unrestrained grin. "Wipe that smirk off your face. I can still ship you off if I feel like it." Despite his teasing threats, Tony grinned back.

"Pepper, have Hill help you organize this," Steve said, trusting in their expertise.

She already had her phone out. "On it. I have to go. Lots of calls to make." She kissed Peter's head and strode out of the room. Peter could hear her say, "Maria?" before the elevator doors closed.

"Come on, Stark," Steve said, standing up. "We better call the U.N. back before they decide to storm the place."

* * *

"What are you still doing up? It's midnight," Tony asked, leaning in Peter's open doorway. The teen was pacing on the ceiling and whirled around in surprise when he heard his father's voice. He must have been pretty deep in thought for Tony to surprise him, considering Peter had super hearing.

"Waiting for you. I didn't think it'd take that long," Peter said, dropping to the floor soundlessly.

"Well, there was a lot of stuff to arrange. Where, when, how many cells they should get ready in the Raft…"

Peter frowned and sat on his bed. "Not funny."

Tony sank down next to him. "Yeah, you're right. I make bad jokes when I'm stressed." He scrubbed his face roughly. "This definitely is making the top ten."

"Sorry."

"Why? Because people suck and are trying to take advantage of your panic attack to lock all of us up? As someone who is very familiar with self-blame, don't be." Peter didn't say anything. Tony sighed and said, "I know you're mad at me for not hopping on board of your plan—"

"I'm not mad," he interrupted quietly.

"—but, in my defense—" he broke off and looked at Peter, who was grinning now, surprised. "You're not mad? Not at all?"

"Nope." The teen shrugged. "You want to keep me safe. I can't be mad at you for that. And you let me stay even though you don't want me to."

"Yeah, well, I think you might be onto something. Pepper seems to think so, anyways, and she's usually right. But can we make a deal, Peter?"

Peter turned to look at Tony. He had clearly been awake for far too long, probably only keeping his eyes open with unnatural amounts of caffeine at this point. His sleeves were rolled up messily and his tie had been discarded. His hair looked like he'd been running his hands through it. Yet here he was, checking in on Peter before finally getting some much needed sleep. The billionaire was looking unusually serious, so Peter nodded.

"If it's clear that we're going to lose—" Tony began with, and Peter began to object right away, but Tony quickly said, "No, don't interrupt. It might happen, and we have to accept that. If it's clear that that's gonna happen, then I want you to take May and hide, just like I wanted this morning."

"Fine." The word tasted like ash in his mouth, but Peter understood why Tony wanted him to make this promise. He had to give his father this small peace of mind. "What about Pepper?"

"Don't worry, my wife and I already talked about contingency plans. She knows what to do," Tony said, the amount of trust and respect for Pepper obvious in his voice.

"I really hope that doesn't happen," Peter admitted.

"Me, too," Tony agreed.


	16. Chapter 16

Peter Stark became an icon almost overnight.

He was on the cover of every magazine, he was the headline for every newspaper, and he was the special guest of every talk show. It seemed like every single day he was telling his story to the world. He was charming, polite, and funny, but whenever questioned about the Avengers or his own mental health, he was serious. He claimed the Avengers were the best thing that had ever happened to him, and that his current mental state was not their fault.

Peter questioned the theory that he was being brainwashed so perfectly that believers suddenly thought it was ridiculous. He was incredibly honest and raw when he talked about the therapy he was going through. Some viewers were even moved to tears by him. He played upon every angle and emotion that he could to bring people around to his side. Many people were shocked about how openly Peter questioned the true motive of the investigation of the Avengers.

Of course, it was impossible for him to charm everyone. People dismissed him because of his age or his inexperience. Some simply _wanted_ to believe that the Avengers had done something wrong, mostly those who believed they'd been wronged by the Avengers before. But day by day, more and more people were calling for the end of the investigation. It was clear that Peter was not being coerced or controlled by the Avengers. He showed up to every event by himself, no one even there for moral support. When asked why nobody, including his three legal guardians, never came with him, he simply said to show that he was there of his own free will.

And miraculously, it worked. Public support turned overwhelmingly in favor of Peter and the Avengers. People protested outside of government buildings in multiple countries. The media stopped portraying him as an unwilling child soldier and instead as a brave superhero. One publication went so far as to call him the future leader of the Avengers. Tony wouldn't stop smirking when he read that prediction, and Steve hadn't stopped smiling at Peter for the next few days.

In fact, all the Avengers seemed incredibly happy. At first, Peter thought they were just trying to keep his own spirits up, because there was no way they should be smiling so much when they were going in for questioning by various governments every single day. Then he realized that they were just really proud of him. Despite all the publicity Peter was receiving and all the conferences the Avengers were doing, they all made sure to have dinner together every other night. Clint brought his family to stay at the Facility for a while for their protection. Tony, of course, had a set of rooms ready for them. Scott came too, though he left his family in San Francisco. Peter caught him calling his daughter every night though.

"So, who's interviewing Spidey tomorrow?" Tony asked his wife.

"60 Minutes," she answered without looking up from her computer. He went behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She spared him a brief look before continuing her work. Tony traded a grin with his son, who was sitting on the floor with Ned and building his new Lego set. MJ was laying on a couch near them, sketching in her book.

"I thought I already did an interview with them," Peter said, looking up briefly.

"You did, but your interview was so popular that they want you to do a second, extended edition," Pepper explained. "They're a very respectable news source. If you don't want to do it, I can cancel it."

"No, no, I'll do it."

MJ tapped her pencil against her book. "How many more interviews are you going to do? You have to have done dozens by now."

Peter shrugged and added his piece to the X-wing Ned was assembling. "However many it takes to end these ridiculous investigations."

Pepper and Tony traded concerned looks. Peter had been working his ass off with all the interviews and TV appearances. On top of that, he'd had to do as many different lab tests as the U.N. could come up with to prove that he was healthy and not a slave to Wanda or another advanced person's mind control. Yet despite how busy he'd been, he seemed to be doing good. Really good. He made time to go out with friends, he was eating regularly, and he had even been sleeping through the night. His parents were just worried that he would fizzle out at this rate.

"You can stop whenever you want, kid," Tony added in. At Peter's skeptical look, he said, "We can deal with the U.N. They're starting to realize they have no case anyways."

"I really don't mind, Dad," the teen assured him. "I like feeling like I'm doing something, especially since I'm benched from any hero stuff."

"U.N. orders, not mine."

"I know, I know. But I'll just be bored if I have to wait here everyday while all of you are working and Ned and MJ are at school," he explained.

"He has a point, Tony. He handles boredom as well as you do," Pepper said, and the teens could hear the allusion in her voice, even if they didn't understand it.

"Okay, I know what you're talking about, and that was only one time—" Tony argued.

"One time?" she said skeptically, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, two times," he amended. "But to be fair, you and Rhodey left me home alone."

She just rolled her eyes. The teens grinned at each other before ducking their heads and pretending to be absorbed in their activities. Ned and MJ had been coming over to the Facility after school to keep Peter company. On weekends they would all go somewhere in the city together, though Peter had to wear a hoodie and sunglasses to help hide his face. His story was the biggest scoop in the media right now, and he didn't want to drag his friends into that. They'd miraculously avoided any interviews at school. Peter wasn't quite sure how considering that everyone knew they were his closest friends, but he had a feeling Pepper had something to do with that. If he had learned anything from the last few weeks, it was that Pepper could've taken over the world if she had gone into journalism. She could coerce people and spin a story like nobody else.

Pepper turned back to her son. "It's your choice, Pete. Just let us know if you want to stop or cut down on the interviews."

"I will," he promised.

* * *

Steve immediately noticed something was wrong with Peter. The super-soldier had just gotten back from a three hour interrogation and was drinking straight out of a coffee pot in the hopes that it would give him some energy. He knew his metabolism would prevent that, but he tried anyways. As leader of the Avengers, Steve was getting called in twice as much as everybody else, except maybe Tony. The teen had already been sitting at the kitchen island when Steve had come to make coffee, papers, pens, and textbooks scattered around him. He assumed Peter was doing homework. But instead of his usual focus and scrawling writing, Peter was staring blankly at the paper, his pen poised, but never setting down to write something.

Steve frowned and said, "You okay, son?"

Peter looked up, a surprised expression on his face, as if he had forgotten that he wasn't alone. He quickly threw on a smile that was clearly faked. "Yeah!" he said with too much enthusiasm. "Just trying to get through this chem work. Ned gave it to me when he was over earlier."

"Right," the soldier said skeptically, especially as Peter's eyes dropped back to the papers and his smile fell. "What's bothering you? Talk to me."

Peter sighed and shoved away from the counter, scrubbing his hair roughly with his hands. "Okay, okay. It's just, doing this work and whatever, I'm realizing how much I'm missing at school. There's a new lesson every day, and all these tests and projects. I don't think I'll be able to make it all up, and on top of that I'm missing so much school they might just hold me back, and I really don't want to repeat junior year."

Steve nodded understandingly, taking Peter's little rant in. He'd had such a good attitude lately that Steve hadn't even noticed the stress that had been accumulating in the teen. It was good that he was talking about it though. Steve made a mental reminder to tell Sam and Tony about this later. They would want to know about this.

"So what other options do you have? If doing junior year all over again is really unappealing, maybe we could have Tony hire a tutor or something," Steve suggested.

"Maybe," Peter said, looking thoughtful. "I don't know. I've never had a tutor before. To be honest, school has always been kind of easy for me. Not grade wise, because I suck at getting assignments in on time, but I always understand the work."

"Tony is always saying you're a genius. Maybe you should follow in your old man's footsteps, go straight to college. I'm sure tons of colleges would be happy to welcome Spider-Man."

Peter smiled at that. Steve sipped from his pot of coffee, frowning as he realized it was already empty. Damn metabolism. It hadn't worked at all. He was still exhausted, worn out from entertaining the repetitive questioning of world governments day after day, and waiting for his friends to finish up with their own interrogations. Steve was honestly so glad Peter had been happy lately. When the kid was happy, it spread like a disease. Even with everything going on, they were all hanging in there, determined to ensure that Peter would be the one deciding if he could be with the Avengers or not. The Avengers were not okay with some faceless board making decisions about Peter and about their team. It was like everyone had forgotten that the role of the Avengers was not to save every single person, but to save the entire world, humanity as a whole. And if they couldn't do that, to avenge it. If Peter felt he could do that, then they had to trust him.

"Yeah, I could go to college. I've always wanted to go to MIT"

"Because of the technology program?"

"No, because of Tony. I knew he went there when he was younger. I wanted to follow in his footsteps." Peter shook his head and laughed. "God, Ned and I spent hours talking about getting into MIT and building our own Iron Man suits. It was our childhood fantasy."

"I never realized you were such an Iron Man fan," Steve teased, leaning against the counter.

"Don't get me wrong, I was a fan of all the Avengers. But I grew up watching Iron Man on the news with my aunt and uncle. Iron Man was the coolest thing to everyone my age. I had Iron Man toys and lunchboxes. I was obsessed. That's why I got into science. Because of Iron Man." He rubbed his wrists. "I became a superhero more via Hulk route than Iron Man though."

Steve got a notification on his phone. Nat. He needed to get going. Sighing, he shoved off the counter and said, "Sorry, son. Duty calls. I'll see you tonight. Think about what you want to do, maybe talk it out with Sam or Tony."

"Sure," Peter agreed easily, picking his pencil back up. Steve ruffled the teen's hair and headed out. It seemed the interrogations weren't quite over yet.

* * *

"Ned? Can I ask you something kind of serious?" Peter asked, nibbling worriedly at his bottom lip. He was sitting at his desk, Ned's face filling his computer screen. They'd been talking for an hour, but Peter hadn't been quite sure how to bring this up.

"Of course, dude. Is something wrong?"

Ned was a great friend. Peter had been coming to appreciate that more and more ever since he found out he was Spider-Man. No judgement, just pure support and someone he could geek out with. That was why Peter had decided he had to ask Ned's opinion on this. It wouldn't be fair to Ned to not consult about a matter that would affect them both.

"I'm thinking about not coming back to Midtown next year," Peter blurted out.

"What?!" Ned yelled and Peter flinched. Okay, he probably should have been more delicate about this. In addition to the many wonderful characteristics of Ned, he was prone to freaking out. "Are you being serious? Because last time you wanted to be a high school dropout, your homecoming date's dad beat you up."

God, that seemed like such a long time ago.

"I know, but this time is different. With how much school I'm missing and with everything going on, I think it just makes the most sense," Peter said, trying to explain what he'd been thinking since he'd talked to Steve earlier. At dinner, Steve tried to get him to mention it to Tony, but Peter had quickly changed the subject. He wasn't ready to talk to Tony about it yet. Talking to Tony meant it was final, that he'd made a decision that Tony would make happen. He wanted to make sure he knew what he was doing.

"Man, Peter, I mean, I don't really want to go to high school without you, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So what, are you going to get your diploma, or just be an Avenger for the rest of your life?"

Peter shrugged. "I don't know. I want my diploma, but I could also skip straight to college. I've already got offers to attend some universities."

"Of course you do, you're Spider-Man," Ned replied, rolling his eyes. "Well, maybe you could take a gap year. Finish getting your diploma, and then we can apply for MIT at the same time, just like we always talked about."

Peter leaned back and considered. A gap year…


	17. Chapter 17

Peter looked like his mind was on another planet. Tony had set a giant plate of pancakes in front of him five minutes ago, but the teen hadn't seemed to notice them yet. Pepper gave Tony a look that said, _Do something about our son._ Sighing, Tony leaned his hands on the island across from Peter.

"What's up, kid? Not hungry?" Tony said.

Peter jerked his head up, clearly startled from his reverie. It took him a moment to process Tony's question. "No, no! It looks great. Thanks, Pepper!"

"No problem, sweetie," she called back from the couches. She was doing Wanda's nails, while Nat sat on the couch opposite them and did her own toes. Since neither of the two female Avengers had any interrogations today, they'd decided to have a girl's day with Pepper. Laura Barton would be joining them later. Uncle Steve and Uncle Bucky were going to be looking after the kids. Tony had already set up a camera to watch their sure to be hilarious attempt at taking care of children.

"What's bugging you?" Tony prompted.

Peter traced his finger along the table, playing with the condensation left over from his glass of orange juice. It looked like he might not answer or shrug it off. Then he blurted out abruptly, "I want to drop out of Midtown."

Tony didn't bat an eye before saying, "Sure."

"Wait a minute!" Pepper yelled, getting up and walking over.

"Why?" her husband asked.

"Tony," she said disapprovingly. Then she looked at her son with a gentle, sympathetic expression. "Peter, honey, are you sure? Dropping out of school is a really big decision, and you're such a good student—"

"I'm not. Not recently. Not with how much school I missing because of missions. Not now that I've been out for nearly a month. I don't think I'll be able to catch up after that. So I'd rather drop out now, get my diploma independently, and not have to worry about class."

"That seems very reasonable," Tony said, pointing at Peter, but looking at Pepper. "We should listen to him. I can call the school right now."

"Slow down. We're only two-thirds of his guardians. I'll talk to May later. If she agrees, then _I_ will call the school," she said, crossing her arms.

Tony held up his hands. "Fine. I hate phone calls anyways."

Peter smiled at his parents. That had gone rather smoothly. He really hadn't been sure how his declaration would go over with them. Tony had always let Peter make the decisions, but he had still expected some resistance. Pepper was reasonable and cared about his mental health, so he'd been fairly sure she would she his point of view. May, though... she was always so concerned about his education. Hopefully Pepper would be able to get her permission.

He really would miss Midtown though. High school was not nearly as bad as some other things in Peter's life.

* * *

"Hello, Mr. Stark. It's so nice to meet you."

"Thank you for having me."

"Of course! Let's sit down. I have a lot of questions I want to ask you today, as I'm sure you're used to by now."

"I think I can handle a few more."

"Good, because I'm getting paid to ask you more. Before we get to those questions though, just out of curiosity, how many interviews have you been doing? I feel like every time I turn on the TV you've done a new interview."

"So do I. No, but seriously, I do about one or two a day, about four or five days a week. It adds up pretty fast."

"Are you sick of these yet?"

"No."

"No? Even though you're getting the same questions over and over again? It isn't bothering you?"

"No. I chose to do these interviews. I firmly believe the UN is using my mental state as a convenient excuse to gain control over the Avengers organization. Anything I can do to help expose the injustice of this investigation, which seeks to tear apart the Avengers again, I will do."

"That's incredibly brave of you. You're sixteen years old, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"And you're actively speaking out against the UN on multiple media platforms."

"Yes."

"Are you scared of any backlash? Of any consequences that might come your way if the UN does find the Avengers guilty of using a child soldier and/or mind control?"

"I don't care what happens to me. I just want to keep my family together."

"You consider the Avengers to be your family?"

"Yes. I've been living with them for over a year now. They've helped me through some really rough times."

"You are referring, of course, to summer. In an interview with 60 Minutes, you said that the reason you were not seen by the general public last summer was because you were depressed."

"Yeah."

"Would you like to talk more about that?"

"Sure. After my identity was revealed without my consent, I spiraled down. I had trouble sleeping, eating, and having enough energy and interest to do anything. All the Avengers, especially Tony and Sam, stood by me and helped me through it. They took care of me, and helped me until I was ready to go back to school."

"The public was not aware of your mental disorders until you experienced a panic attack in a classroom. Is it difficult to talk about the depression you experienced? It seemed like this was something you did not want people to know about."

"I didn't want people to know. I don't need sympathy, and I didn't want people to think I was drawing attention to myself. I was trying to work through my problems with people that I trust. So I would say it's difficult to talk about. It's incredibly personal. People seem to think mental disorders can just be solved, or that people make up disorders as an excuse. That's not true. They're different for everyone, and they can take a lot of time."

"Many people are calling you a hero for mental illness. What do you think of that title?"

"Um...I'm glad that my openness about my problems is helping other people. I think that's great. But I wouldn't call myself an activist. I'm totally for helping people with problems like mine, but there are so many other people doing such important work in that field every day who I think deserve the true recognition. I'm a big supporter of their work."

"That's very honest of you."

"Well, it's true. Or it's my opinion, at least."

"Thank you. Now to get back on track, can you tell us about the day you had the panic attack in class? That is what started this all."

"Sure. But just for the record, I'd been experiencing panic attacks since before I either moved in with or joined the Avengers. That day at school…"

"Take your time."

"Sorry. It's hard to talk about. Anyways, Tony had been injured a week earlier, but the footage had just been released. I actually hadn't been aware there was footage until I saw it on the news. Seeing it made Tony's injury seem more real and more deadly. It really struck me how close I came to losing him. I was fine until class started. There were these two girls in front of me watching the video under their desk, and they were talking about how Iron Man could have died. Hearing them voice some of my biggest fears just made me snap. That's when the panic attack started."

"I hear you then ran out of your classroom, and locked yourself in another room. I have pictures here. It looks like the handle was crushed."

"I did that. I was so freaked out I forgot to be careful with my strength."

"You're really that strong?"

"When I first got my powers I accidentally broke my bed when I stubbed my toe."

"So you believe that being an Avenger has no correlation to your panic attacks?"

"Not really, no. I had a panic attack because I was scared for my dad. Anyone who has come close to losing someone they love would probably have a similar reaction."

"But what about before now? You've said that this has happened to you before."

"In the past, my panic attacks were usually triggered by stress, or nightmares. I lost my uncle when I was pretty young, and it really affected me. Some of my activities as Spider-Man are responsible, but from before I joined the Avengers. Working with the Avengers is actually safer. We back each other up, and have access to the best medical equipment in case of emergencies."

"Have you ever considered retiring from being Spider-Man, like Clint Barton did from being Hawkeye?"

"No. I couldn't do that. Protecting people is what I live for. It's incredibly important to me, and only with the Avengers can I use my abilities to their fullest."

"We've hit my last question of the night. Midtown School of Science and Technology, your high school, recently announced that you had been pulled out of the school. Can you comment on that? Are you planning on going back to school?"

"Oh, um...yeah. I decided to drop out of school. I was getting really overwhelmed because of all the absences I was racking up doing missions ordered by the UN. And now there's this whole thing, with the investigation. I would actually have to repeat my junior year at this point. That sounded very unappealing to me, personally, so I talked with Tony, Pepper, and my Aunt May about other options. I finally decided on taking a gap year. My best friend is pretty upset we won't be finishing high school together. I'm going to get my GED independently, and then probably go to college. I don't know. We'll see what happens."

"Well, thank you for your time tonight, Mr. Stark. You've been a wonderful guest."

"Thank you."

"A round of applause for Peter Stark!"

* * *

"Nice job, nerd," MJ said, sitting on the hood of his car.

"Thanks, I think," Peter said, strolling over. He felt strange right now, sort of empty. Applause still echoed through his head, blurry faces and bright lights. "What are you doing here?"

"I was watching the interview, and then I heard on live TV that you were dropping out," she said, staring at him, clearly disappointed.

Peter wanted to smack himself in the forehead. He'd talked to Ned about it, then told Tony the next day to make it official. And then he'd had to submit to another test for the UN before rushing over to this interview. In the flurry of his day he hadn't even thought of calling MJ. Though to be fair, he hadn't realized Tony would be so prompt about taking him out of Midtown. Or that the news would catch word of it so fast.

"Oh. Yeah, I, um, I meant to call you earlier, but everything got a bit hectic," he said apologetically.

She popped off his car. "I know. The news just kind of took me by surprise."

"I would have told you," he said, which sounded a bit lame, even to himself. He quickly changed up his approach. "What does it matter anyways? You're graduating this year. Ned's the one getting the raw end of the deal. We're both leaving him."

"I guess that's true," she conceded.

"Want a ride?" he offered, opening the passenger's door.

She climbed in. He popped into the other side and set autopilot. He didn't feel like driving right now. As Karen pulled the car out of the garage he realized it was raining outside. The drops streaked down the windows of the car. He'd always loved how the rain looked on glass. It matched his mood too. Rain was always the storm before the calm. Just like this insane part of his life, that would hopefully lead to so peace.

Interviews wore him out. Especially when he had to talk about his mental health, which was often. He always felt detached afterwards, like he had watched himself be pried open and examined. Even the medical testing the UN was having him do didn't feel as invasive. The interviews always seemed to go incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time. It was eternity while he was talking, and over in a minute when he was walking off set. He was glad MJ was here. She was easy to talk to, and she never pressed him to talk. They were both comfortable in silence. It was nice.

"I heard that counselor who blabbed to the press, Johnson or something, got fired from Midtown," she mentioned, a little too casually.

"Oh. I have a feeling Tony's army of lawyers made sure of that. Anyways, what colleges have you been accepted to?" he asked, not really wanting to talk about anything to do with counselors tonight.

"MIT, Oxford, Prince, Yale, and Stanford," she listed off robotically.

"Wow. That's great," he said, honestly astounded. He didn't think she'd even applied for half of those.

She shrugged. "I don't really want to go to any of them. I want to do something interesting, something important. Like journalism."

"Well, whatever you do, you better come visit me."

"I will. Probably with my Nobel Peace Prize."

"I'd be out of a job if we had peace," Peter said thoughtfully. "That would be pretty great."

She cracked a smile. "Yeah, it would."

"When's your graduation ceremony?"

"In a month. Are you going to come?"

"Of course. I'll be in the front row, cheering you on."

MJ rolled her eyes. "You're a dork."

"Yeah, but I'm your dorky friend. Make sure to text me the time. I'd hate to miss you getting your diploma."


	18. Chapter 18

Peter waited anxiously next to May, the rapid tapping of his foot the only sound in the room besides the TV. May, Ned, MJ, and Pepper were all watching the screen intently, but Peter couldn't seem to focus on it. He kept sneaking glances at it, then looking away quickly. The room was quiet, quiet enough Peter could hear the drip of condensation coming off of Pepper's untouched water glass. May placed a comforting hand on Peter's arm, and he failed at smiling. His face just couldn't make that shape right now.

Because today was the day. Today the UN announced whether all charges were being dropped against the Avengers or they were all being sent to jail for having a child soldier and causing him trauma.

Peter, strangely enough, had not been allowed to come to the proceedings, even though every other Avenger was mandated to be present. He'd complained, but there wasn't anything even Tony Stark could say to change the UN's mind right now. So now he had to sit at home and watch his fate get decided on live TV. It was infuriating. They could kick him out of the Avengers right now, or arrest his father, and he was hundreds of miles away, unable to do anything.

"The UN panel in charge of regulating the Sokovia Accords, and by extension, the private organization known as the Avengers, are deliberating right now about the final decision regarding the ongoing investigation into the Avengers for violating the Sokovia Accords," the news anchor said quietly, as she was in the chamber with the Avengers, like many other international channels. "The investigation began when Peter Stark, aka Spider-Man, suffered from a panic attack while in Midtown High School. Reports began circulating that Stark had actually been forced to join the Avengers through the magic of Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch. Using powers against another person would be in direct violation of the Sokovia Accords.

"However, if the Avengers are not found guilty of using powers on Stark, there was a secondary cause for the investigation: to determine whether Stark, who is only sixteen, should be allowed to continue to serve on the Avengers at all. Many human rights activists are saying that Stark is being used as a child soldier by the Avengers, and that Stark's mental health issues, of which he has spoken openly of, are proof that minors are not fit to serve as superheroes."

Peter gritted his teeth. So they'd listened to him about his mental health issues, but ignored his express wish that he continue to work with the Avengers? Convenient.

"This whole investigation is so stupid," MJ said, shaking her head.

"Shush," Ned said, leaning forward. MJ flipped him off while Pepper suppressed a smile.

"It looks like they're ready to deliver the final verdict now," the news anchor whispered excitedly. A hush had fallen over the room. Peter smiled when he saw Tony completely turned around, chatting with someone in the audience. He had to be just as worried as Peter, but Tony would never let that show. Especially when by playing nonchalant he could piss some important people off.

"This panel has come to the conclusion that Peter Benjamin Stark, also known as Spider-Man, shows no signs of being controlled or manipulated by the powers of Ms. Maximoff, or any other enhanced individual," the man sitting at the head of the panel announced, though he sounded rather upset that they'd come to that verdict. "All charges regarding to violation of the Accords by the Avengers have been dropped."

Pepper visibly relaxed, her hand over her mouth. Her husband wasn't going to be locked up in the Raft. But Peter knew they weren't done yet. Specifically, he wasn't out of the clear yet.

"Regarding the public clamor and suggestions from multiple countries who ratified the Sokovia Accords that Mr. Stark be removed from the Avengers," the man continued, his mouth a thin line, "the panel has decided, after multiple evaluations, that Mr. Stark should be allowed to continue his current line of work."

Peter felt all the tension leave his body as his head fell into his hands. MJ and Ned were shouting victoriously, and May was shaking Peter's shoulders excitedly. It had worked. They had done it. Nobody was getting locked up, no one was being forced out of the Avengers. Peter was trembling, even as a giant smile spread across his face as it sunk into him. They were all fine, they were staying together, and he could keep being Spider-Man.

His phone rang. He pulled it out to see a single text.

 _Good job, Spider-Man._

* * *

It had been three months since Peter Stark had a panic attack while in class. Three months since the Avengers were put under investigation by the UN. One month since Peter announced that he would not be returning to Midtown High next year. Only two weeks since the Avengers were cleared of all charges. And today was the first day there would all be seen together since the trial, at Midtown's graduation ceremony.

The entire front row had been reserved for the Avengers and their guests. All the seniors sat in their bright blue graduation gowns and matching caps, but very few of them were interested in getting their diplomas. Not when they had the chance to meet their heroes, who word had gotten out would be attending the graduation today. People began to think that those were just rumors as the graduation ceremony was about to begin, and they hadn't made an appearance. Yet the empty row sat there, still awaiting their guests.

The Avengers showed up a minute before the music started, in T-shirts, hoodies, and dark sunglasses. If it weren't for their easily recognizable faces, they might have been mistaken for a regular family. Except for Bucky's metal arm, which could be seen between his sleeve and glove, and Vision's Infinity Stone, which was still shining beneath his human facade. Guests chatted excitedly when they saw them, but fell silent as the music started playing and the graduating class started walking towards the stage. Peter and Ned cheered extremely loudly when MJ passed by them. She flipped them off behind her back, causing them to laugh.

The ceremony was pretty boring overall. A lot of formalities, and a long list of students being called up to get their diplomas. The Avengers were extremely vocal when MJ was called up. She rolled her eyes when she saw Peter and Ned giving her a standing ovation, but she restrained herself from flipping them off since she was on stage. Even though she was valedictorian, she had decided not to give a speech. She thought this whole ceremony was ridiculous. But it was over soon enough, and MJ had officially graduated from high school.

Since MJ's own family was there to congratulate her, too, Peter and Ned only gave her a quick congrats before promising to see her tonight. But Peter had brought a different guest with him to talk to MJ. He hoped she would like the surprise.

"Ready to head home, kid?" Tony asked.

Peter watched Maria Hill approach MJ, a small smile on his face. The two women shook hands. He saw Hill take MJ over to an out of the way table. They would have a lot to talk about.

"Yeah, let's go," Peter said.

Tony draped his arm around Peter's shoulder. "You know you most definitely will not be valedictorian."

"Not in high school. Maybe at MIT. Weren't you valedictorian?"

"Yup. I was seventeen and got drunk out of my mind for the speech. I can't remember a word I said," Tony said lightly, grinning over at Rhodey, who was walking near them. "Isn't that right, honey?"

"I had a bet going on when he would pass out," the colonel said without missing a beat. Tony roared with laugh. "He didn't, but his old man sure did have some words for him, showing up drunk to an event like that."

"He was drunk when he yelled at me about my inebriated conduct though, so it was kind of a moot point."

"God, he looked ridiculous," Rhodey said, shaking his head. "Five years younger than the average graduate, all lanky and unshaven. I remember people asking me if he was actually the valedictorian, or if his dad had paid for it."

"Trust me, he was not happy I would be returning home after graduation," Tony said, that bitterness seeping into his voice. Then he smiled brightly at Peter and said, "I hope your friend takes the job. Hill can be pretty persuasive, though, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"I hope so, too," Peter said. But who knew with MJ?

* * *

"Congrats, MJ," Peter said as she stepped into his lab, where he and Ned had been tinkering around. She'd had to attend a small party her family had thrown for her, but promised to drop by the Facility later. She still wore a nice dress that had been under her graduation gown, but all traces of jewelry and make-up had been wiped away. She didn't really like all that stuff much.

She strode straight up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, and made him stand with a surprising amount of strength. She'd been faking exercising for four years, how was she so strong? Ned popped out of his seat too, clearly wanting to help, but unsure what to do. MJ looked kind of scary, having not said anything yet and looking angry. Peter was too surprised to pull away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is happening?" Ned yelled.

She shook Peter's shoulders. "Did you seriously set up a job for me, Stark?! What, do you think I need charity or something?!"

"That is not what happened!" Peter cried. "I just told Maria about you and Ned! I did not ask her to give you a job!"

She searched his face. "You're serious?" she checked.

"Completely serious," he promised. She let him go. He stepped back, just to be safe. She'd already jumped him once tonight, he didn't want it to happen again.

"Okay, then," she said calmly, sitting down at the work table.

"Wait, wait up," Ned said, looking between his two friends. "What the hell just happened?"

"Some lady who works for his dad just offered me a job here," MJ said, in perhaps as little detail as a person could possibly give. Peter decided to step in.

"That lady was Maria Hill. She's the former Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now she works for Stark Industries, officially, but she's really in charge of the Facility. What job did she offer you? She wouldn't tell me what she wanted to recruit you for when she asked to come to your graduation."

"Snoop," she snapped at him. Then a small smile appeared on her face. "She wants me to work directly under her. Some sort of intern position, I guess."

Peter whistled. "That could be a lot of work."

"But I'd have access to all of the Avengers files, wouldn't I?" MJ asked, a sparkle in her eyes.

"I'm worried about you asking that, but yes. Hill basically runs things here. You would be pretty high on the chain of command, which honestly terrifies me."

"Are you going to take the job? It sounds amazing," Ned said, eyes wide.

She shrugged. "Maybe."

"You're taking it," Peter said confidently.

"Hell yeah, I am." They all laughed.

"Man, next year will be weird," Ned said, shaking his head. "I'll still be at Midtown, Peter's going to be a full-time Avenger, and now MJ's going to become a super spy. If someone had told me that's what's going to happen to us in two years ago, I would have called them crazy. Now it kind of just feels like the next step in our lives, ya know?"

It had been a crazy two years, Peter agreed. Full of drama and near death experiences. Honestly, nothing sounded better to him than a nice relaxing summer, spending the days with Ned and probably helping train MJ. It was a requirement to know martial arts and how to use firearms when you worked for the Avengers. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when she found out. She'd do it, though. She'd always loved conspiracy theories, and now she could be at the center of them, creating them for other people to chase while she knew the truth. Ned would be top of the class, like MJ, Peter was sure. And he would home school himself, and do Avengers stuff. Yeah, it was crazy, but it was also perfect.

For once, Peter wasn't worried about what came next.

* * *

 **This was the last chapter, guys. Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed and favorited my story. It means a lot to me. I have more stories on the way, so please go check those out. Thank you so much to Beauty In Her Darkness for being my beta (you should check out her stories, too, she's awesome).**

 **-Lady of Lorule**


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